January 6 Rioters - Part XI - I Taught History. I Like Facts (421-504)

  

I TAUGHT HISTORY. I LIKE FACTS.

PART XI 

(Rioters #421-504)

__________ 

“It was a bitter truth, but a truth.” 

Larry McMurtry

__________

 

 

RECENTLY, several Facebook friends (ex-friends?) insisted that I was obsessed with Donald Trump. They said, with varying degrees of enthusiasm, that I needed to: 

A.    Go fuck myself. 

B.     Love America more (like them). 

C.    Love America more (like Donald)! 

D.   Quit posting “boring drivel.” That was from a former student. I complimented him on the use of such an evocative phrase.

 

I’m not sure they understand how democracy works. 

To be clear, I’m not obsessed with Trump. I am, however, deeply concerned for the future of our country. 

I believe he is the most dangerous political figure in all American history – and I taught American history for thirty years. 

So long as my conservative friends continue to operate under the delusion that he is not, I will keep posting, hoping to persuade those who still operate from a base of intellectual honesty. 

As for Trump’s diehard loyalists, they concern me, almost as much as he did (and still does). I’m not sure they understand how democracy works.

  

In terms of the January 6 riot, I got interested in studying the topic, when in short order on Facebook one of my favorite former students said she believed the rioters were really Antifa folk in MAGA sheep clothing. Then another former favorite student told me I should delve more into QAnon, because it “explained so much.” After the briefest possible look at a link she provided, I had to tell the second young lady that I thought QAnon was “nonsense,” and then apologized for being blunt.

I taught history. I like facts. That meant it was time to look up the stories of (so far) 500+ rioters from that day. 

BLOGGER’S NOTE: By the time I update this post, on November 17, 2023, I have looked up the stories of more than 1,250 rioters, and their rioter friends. 

 

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“We know they stole it, and we aren’t going to accept it!” 

421. JONATHON OWEN SHROYER: We keep looking for the elusive left-wing type who stormed the Capitol on January 6 – and led all the QAnon dopes astray. All we find are arrestees like Shroyer, whose day job is to host a show on the right-wing Infowars website. 

Supposedly, the dastardly lefties led freedom-loving, patriotic Trump fans astray, and then instigated the violence. 

According to the F.B.I., Shroyer knew exactly what was going on that day and no one had to lead him on – not counting Trump. 

After listening to then-President Trump stir up the crowd at the “Stop the Steal: rally, telling them they had to “fight like hell,” Shroyer was primed for action. “Today we march for the Capitol because on this historic January 6, 2021, we have to let our Congressmen and women know, and we have to let Mike Pence know, they stole the election,” Shroyer told a group he led that day. “We know they stole it, and we aren’t going to accept it!” 

Shroyer was so proud of what the mob had done in storming Congress that he called in to a live Infowars broadcast, to howl that he and his friends now owned the streets. 

The day before the riot, Shroyer posted videos wondering if “Americans are ready to fight.” He went on to say, “We’re not exactly sure what that’s going to look like … if we can’t stop this certification of the fraudulent election … we are the new revolution! We are going to restore and we are going to save the republic!” 

In the wake of his arrest, he claimed he and like-minded patriots tried to “stop the madness” on January 6, and now he was merely a “political prisoner.” 

On June 23, 2023, however, he realized it might be smart to plead guilty and start cooperating with authorities. 

So he does. 

By that time, 962 days have passed since the 2020 election. And still no evidence that the election was stolen (or even borrowed like a library book and returned a week late) has been proven in court. 

In a plea for leniency, during the sentencing phase, the defense argued that Mr. Shroyer was a “vocal & vigorous critic of the federal government and believed, in late 2020 and early 2021,” that the 2020 election had been “stolen,” a belief fostered to a significant extent by “no less a personage than then-president Donald Trump.” 

Finally, on September 12, 2023, Shroyer learned his sentence: 60 days in the slammer. It was, by then, 1,043 days since Trump got dumped in the last presidential contest. Still, no proof to the contrary shown in any state or federal court. 

Trump supporter, believe in “stolen election” myth, right-wing.

 

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422. ODIN MEACHAM: Meacham is not arrested until May 2023; but I plugged him in here, because I had listed another arrestee twice. He was tied to photographic and video evidence from the riot, and can be seen in one photo, striking police with a long wooden pole. In the same picture we can see other rioters in battle gear. 

In the Statement of Facts in his case, it is said that by 2:09 p.m. that day, the defendant was part of a large mob that had “swarmed and overwhelmed” the first line of police defending the Capitol. 

At another point, that afternoon, Meacham threw some kind of black metal pole at an officer. Then he tried to wrest away the baton of another policeman. Such behavior led to his arrest, and he faced four federal charges, including assault. He’s a white guy. He’s from Utah. 

Yep. He’s a Trump fan. 

He is arrested (and added to my list here) on the 924^th day since the 2020 election. And still NO proof significant numbers of votes were stolen. 

Or to put it plainly, he’s headed for jail in service to a giant lie, including for a conviction of assault with a deadly weapon. He won’t be out in time to see Trump serve a second term (if Americans are stupid enough to vote for the man who inspired the insurrectionists).

 

UPDATE: We also learned recently that he was accompanied by a nephew during the attack, Nejourde Meacham (#1158 on our list). 

Unfortunately, Nejourde has died, age 22, possibly by his own hand. When I edit this post, on Labor Day 2023, we are 1,035 days past the un-stolen presidential election. Trump is still lying.

 

UPDATE (August 14, 2024): Another edit – and still no evidence in any court that the election was stolen. Meanwhile, Odin Meacham has been tried and found guilty on all charges. 

Seven felonies.

 

UPDATE #2 (November 6, 2024): On the day after the man who inspired the riot was elected to a second term in office, Meacham is sentenced to spend six years in prison, with two additional on probation. 

According to his lawyer, Meacham told authorities that his, “particular purpose, as sad as it sounds, was Trump told us to show up. We thought it was going to make some type of difference for what we believed he was telling us.”

Trump had claimed rioters were "hugging and kissing" police.

Meacham with his stick, in red box.

Trump “sent us,” violent.

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“Patriots going to war.”  

423. Bradley Stuart Bennett: For Mr. Bennett, January 6 was like another date with his girlfriend, Elizabeth Rose Williams. The lovers even posed inside the Capitol Building for several photos. 

According to the Charlotte Observer, “Bennett was a QAnon devotee from Trinity [N.C.] — just over the Guilford County line in Randolph County, according to court records. She was a musician, lifestyle coach and essential oils guru from San Antonio.” 

In the fading evening light that awful day, Bennett posted an all-caps rant on social media, promising more of the same. “TODAY WAS A REVOLUTIONARY MESSAGE,” he said, while hammering away at the keys. “WE WON’T GO AWAY. WE WILL FIND VICTORY.” 

“Patriots going to war,” is how Bennett put it in a video he made of the Capitol riot, according to the F.B.I. 

For starters, Bennett managed to dodge the F.B.I. for twenty days, after he realized he faced arrest. 

Finally, in May 2021, Bennett got pinched, and spent three months in jail. For a time, he considered representing himself in court. Then he thought better and tried to find a lawyer who would take his case; but no one wanted it. Then he settled on a public defender – and in early 2022, there was serious talk of accepting a plea deal. In March 2023, he asked the court for permission to switch lawyers. 

The judge “expressed frustration.” 

Bennett pleaded guilty to all charges save one in January 2024. He and his girlfriend have also split up.

Right-wing, Trump supporter, QAnon believer.

 

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424. Elizabeth Rose Williams: On her lifestyle website, Williams sold coaching advice, along with soothing oils, and once posted, “My heart is to passionately pursue my own lifestyle dreams, and one of those dreams includes finding the gold in others and making it shine!” 

Although not necessarily finding gold in “pedophile liberals,” she didn’t mean. Williams and Bennett also posted QAnon nonsense and right-wing conspiracy theories on another website, BattleBorn.LIVE. 

“Never take Freedom for granted,” the website reads. “With political gaming & coverups, with tyranny on display, it’s time to wake up to a massive coup attempting to steal our FREEDOM.” 

“Stormed the Capitol,” she explained on social media that bitter day. “Pray for us all,” she added. 

Now she awaits sentencing, having pleaded guilty. 

Right-wing, Trump supporter, QAnon believer.

 

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425. DANIEL CHRISTMANN: The 38-year-old New Yorker was arrested on July 28, 2021, after tipsters alerted authorities to Instagram posts he had made, putting himself squarely inside the Capitol on January 6. 

As ABC News explains, the day after the riot, a friend asked if he had been a participant. According to prosecutors, he responded,  “Yeah im not going to lie.” He went on to brag that he had “scaled a wall on a garden hose.” In the 2020 election, Christmann ran as a candidate for state senator, against the Democratic incumbent, on the New Moderate Party ticket. 

He got 2.3% of the vote. 

Hard to tell where he fits on the political spectrum since he has said he’s fighting both oligarchs and communism. He also hoped to run for President of the United States on the Libertarian Party ticket, but never made it out of the party convention. So he settled for rioting instead. 

During a hearing in November 2022, Christmann had difficulty following his lawyer’s advice and risked overturning a plea deal. When the judge asked the defendant if he understood the election certification process – which the rioters had tried to subvert, the rioter launched into what court observers called a “monologue,” and his lawyer had to remind him, “Dan, yes, or no.” 

Later, Christmann went off script again and said he was just going “to tell the truth” about the 2020 election, which meant he still thought Trump was cheated. 

On February 15, 2024, his trials and tribulations came to an end, and he was sentenced to reside behind bars for twenty-five days, and mull over his sins. And after more than three years, we still have zero evidence the 2020 election was stolen. 

Trump supporter, he believed the election was stolen (and still does).

 

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Not known to be particularly dangerous. 

426. DAVID JOHN LESPERANCE: When federal authorities identified Lesperance, 69, as a suspect and went to his house to question him, the Florida gentleman admitted he had been inside the Capitol. Then he admitted that he had been with the pastor of his church and the pastor’s son (see below), but refused to play Judas and name them for the Romans. (It didn’t take long, however, for the F.B.I. to figure out the other two suspects’ names.) Lesperance also admitted he had taken photos and videos inside the Capitol but deleted them out of fear “of repercussions.” 

Not much was known about his motivation at the time – but he did travel all the way to D.C. to listen to then-President Trump babble about how he would “never concede” the results of the election. 

Lesperance is not known to be particularly dangerous, save for the fact he and others were hoping to overturn the results of a fair election. 

On July 14, 2023, all three good Christians got their comeuppance before a jury, and all were found guilty on all charges. 

In the case of Mr. Lesperance, prosecutors were seeking a seven-month sentence. They alleged that he “recorded on video – and repeatedly celebrated – the mayhem that was unfolding before his eyes, variously declaring ‘this is doing it bigly!’ and ‘do the Inauguration in the basement.’” 

Um…they don’t get what they want – but Lesperance does get 10 days, all expenses paid, in jail. He’ll also spend as much time on probation and under supervised release as Trump spent in office. 

Plus he owes $3,500.

Trump supporter.

 

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“Heartbreaking scene.” 

427. JAMES “JIM” VARNELL CUSICK JR.: Cusick, who founded Global Outreach Ministries in Melbourne, Fla., was arrested and charged with participating in the riot. He and his son, also an officer of the church (below), were both freed on $25,000 bond. For some reason, after Pastor Cusick was arrested, the Global Outreach Ministries website was taken down. 

According to the website (when it was up), the elder Cusick held ministerial credentials from the Association of Faith Churches and Ministers. Cusick had promised anyone who attended services that he would preach, “The uncompromised truths of God’s Word with passion and purpose at weekly Bible Studies.” 

According to Patheos, his ministry had over 200 followers of Facebook, but that page has also been taken down. 

Right-wing websites quickly came to the defense of Pastor Cusick, noting that he was a 73-year-old veteran, and had been awarded a Purple Heart in Vietnam. They also pointed out that his son was “arrested in front of his distraught three-year-old daughter who asked why they were locking her dad’s hands. … Videos of the heartbreaking scene were provided to the Gateway Pundit.” 

Pastor Cusick’s daughter Stacey was home when federal agents came to make an arrest and tells a sad tale that almost makes you forget the people who rioted on January 6 wanted to overturn the results of a U.S. presidential election – something which had never happened in 59 tries. 

As reported in the Carolina Firearms Forum, a conservative online forum: 

“They said that they understand that and that they’re ‘not the bad guys, we’re just here doing what we’re told,’” Stacey said. “My dad loves this country. He volunteered to go to Vietnam and fight. He served 16 months there proudly. He has taken so many kids on trips to Washington, DC, to let them see this great country. He’s very passionate about this nation. He’s a pastor and he holds the Constitution in a very high regard. He hates what is happening to this country, but he would never vandalize or harm any government property, or anything for that matter. He’s a very upstanding man and I was devastated to see him taken away.”

Her voice shaking as she began to cry, Stacey added, “there’s just no reason for it. He did nothing to deserve what we saw this morning. I don’t understand why they would feel okay doing this to someone like him. I think they felt bad about it, but they kept saying it’s their job.”

Stacey said it made her uneasy to know that people who see that this is wrong would still be willing to do it, “because it’s their job.”

 

Everyone involved with the church insists father and son would never vandalize property, and never saw any violence when they were inside the Capitol. 

And, oh, so sad, Lesperance was arrested “as he was coming back from bringing his wife home from her heart doctor.” 

Sad, or not, Pastor Cusick has been found guilty, as of July 14, 2023, and his next ministry could be to fellow prisoners – who could use a little spiritual help. 

Scratch that…on October 12, dad is sentenced to only ten days in the slammer, but another four years on probation/supervised release. 

He’ll also have to cough up $3,500. 

Trump supporter.

 

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428. CASEY CUSICK: The younger Cusick serves as vice president of the church, graduated from Rhema Bible Training College in 2014, and spent three years in Israel. 

On the same day father and son were arrested, Mike Pence was speaking at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in California. He told his audience that he would “always be proud” of the part he played in the January 6 saga. 

That is: He upheld the U.S. Constitution, under extreme pressure and duress, applied by the president himself. 

As Church Leaders explains, the former VP was clear: 

The Constitution affords the vice president no authority to reject or return electoral votes submitted to the Congress by the states.” Although some “in our [Republican] party” believe “any one person” can pick the commander in chief, Pence said, “there is almost no idea more un-American.”

 

True that. 

Also true that: Casey Cusick and his dad both went to trial – with a jury, and the full works. Both were found guilty on July 14, 2023. Father and son have said, through their lawyer, that they will appeal. 

Young Casey has now been sentenced to ten days in jail, four years of supervised release and probation, and ordered to fork over $3,500 in fines and restitution. 

Trump supporter.

 

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429. (R.I.P.) JOSEPH BARNES, 35, was hit with several charges related to his role in the Capitol Hill affray. In June, however, the Austin, Texas man ran a red light on his motorcycle, collided with an automobile, and was pronounced dead at the scene. 

In video from last January, Barnes can be seen inside the Capitol, yelling, “This is our house. This is our country. This is our country,” according to court documents.  

Prior to his arrest, he worked as a real estate agent and had an art business. According to the Austin American-Statesman, a Facebook post on a page linked to his business featured a “Come and Take It” flag, known to all Texans, and featured a quote attributed to Thomas Jefferson: “I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical.” 

If you haven’t noticed, many of the rioters liked the idea of spilling the blood of other Americans in order to make sure they got their way. 

A picture gallery from his obituary shows a man who liked to hunt and fish, golf, and spend time with his family. 

He looks like he was a good uncle, a patriot, and “loved his Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ,”  and no doubt his family will miss him – but he still fell for Trump’s lies about a stolen election. 

Trump supporter. 

 

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430. CYNTHIA CHRISTINE BALLENGER: Ballenger and Christopher John Price (below), her husband, were indicted on July 30, and charged with participating in the attack on Jan. 6. Social media and Google phone location tracking records showed the couple squarely inside the building. 

When interviewed by F.B.I. agents, Ballenger was less than helpful. She replied to several questions, telling agents that if they wanted to know something, they should be able to figure it out. 

Her court battles twisted and turned; but according to NPR, she was found guilty in a bench trial. 

Then she got four months in prison, and the judge docked her for a $500 fine.

Trump supporter (see, #431).

 

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“Worth fighting for Trump.” 

431. Christopher John Price: Text messages Price sent to a friend include, “We’re taking over the capitol. 

The friend replies, “Trump said to be peaceful.” 

Price responds with a photo and notes, “Tear gas and explosions going off.” At 3:24 p.m. he texts simply, “In.” Other texts: “Broken glass everywhere” and “Climbing through the window.” 

At 3:28, Price messages, “Worth fighting for Trump.” 

The charging document in Ballenger and Price’s case notes: 

On June 24, 2021, the FBI interviewed PRICE at his workplace. PRICE said, “hypothetically,” if he an [sic] BALLENGER were at the US capitol on January 6, 2021, they were not among those causing problems but may have been swept up and just followed the crowd. PRICE said that there are times when you look back when you have done something, and at the time you do not know that you are doing anything wrong and you do not feel like you are doing anything wrong, but then later you find out what you did may have been wrong. PRICE said that whatever happened on January 6, 2021, and whatever the consequences may be, it was all in God’s hands now.

 

On March 21, 2023, Mr. Price is found guilty in a bench trial, and awaits sentencing on multiple charges.

Trump supporter.

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“It’s called the insurrection act.”  

432. BOYD ALLEN CAMPER: The indictment against Camper, who came all the way from Missoula, Montana just to get arrested for rioting, is clear. 

He’s a Trump guy, even wearing a “Trump 2020” camouflage-colored baseball hat on that awful day. 

Evidence against him includes: 

Specifically, on January 7, 2021, a two minute and twenty-six second clip of the CBS News interview was posted to YouTube, under the CBS Evening News channel. In the video, the interviewer introduced a person on the grounds outside the Capitol building as Boyd Camper from Montana. Wearing a blue jacket and camouflage hat, Camper acknowledged that he was inside of the Capitol, stating “I was on the front line.” He further stated, “We’re going to take this damn place. If you haven’t heard it’s called the insurrection act and we the people are ready.” The “front line” alludes to the initial push of the rioters past police officers and barricades into the Capitol.

 

In another video from that day, according to the indictment, as the mob tries to battle a way inside the Capitol, “someone in the hallway can be heard stating ‘they are pepper spraying us,’ and Camper can be heard asking that people with masks outside the entrance to come forward. Witness #1 also stated that h/she met with Camper after the riot, and that Camper talked about being inside the Capitol Building.” 

Several photos show Camper inside, with a Go-Pro camera on a long camera stick, filming the historic day. 

Kind of like having a passenger on the Titanic film the ship going down. 

(In November, Mr. Camper admits in court he got caught up in the excitement of that day and made “a bad decision.” He pleads guilty to one misdemeanor count and is sentenced to 60 days in jail.)

Trump supporter.

 

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433. RUSSELL DEAN ALFORD: Mr. Alford represents the state of Alabama on this list, and, like so many others, his arrest comes in part as a result of his desire to document his role in the riot, in his case, on YouTube.  

According to the affidavit for his arrest,  

After stating his full name, ALFORD told the FBI agents that he attended the Trump rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6, 2021. He explained that he had wanted to attend a Trump rally for quite some time, and thought this could be his last opportunity to do so. ALFORD stated that on January 5, 2021, he and a friend drove to just outside Washington, D.C. and rented a hotel room. The next day, they drove into Washington, D.C. to attend the Trump rally near the White House. 

 

As one Alabama newspaper noted, Mr. Alford’s “Facebook page consists mostly of pro-Republican, anti-Democrat posts.”  

In October 2022, Mr. Alford was found guilty, by a jury of his peers, of three charges. The following February, Alford learned that he would be spending the next year of his life in prison, the next after that on probation, and that he owed the federal government $500 in restitution. 

If you think these poor defendants are being denied their rights, Alford appeals his sentence as too harsh. On January 5, 2023, one day short of the third anniversary of the riot, a three-judge panel rules against his motion. The opinion for the court was written by Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson, elevated to the federal bench by President George H. W. Bush in 1990. 

Trump supporter. 

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434. JENNIFER HEINL: Not only does Ms. Heinl get indicted for her role in the riot, her husband, Michael Heinl, a 30-year member of the Shaler Township Police Department, files for divorce, as a result. 

Officer Heinl told reporters that he repeatedly cautioned his wife, 55, not to travel to D.C. on January 6, but she can be seen inside the Capitol, conversing with Kenneth Grayson. 

She and Grayson (#3 on our list) had been communicating on social media since November 11. 

Her lawyer told WPXI radio, “To make it clear, I’ve known Jennie Heinl a long time and she’s not a criminal. She’s deeply embarrassed.” 

(She’s also convicted. In November 2021, she agrees to a plea agreement and accepts guilt, regarding one misdemeanor charge. She gets fourteen days in jail, two added years on probation. And the aforementioned divorce.) 

Trump supporter.

 

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“Trump 2020! Trump 2020! Trump 2020!” 

435. JOHN LOLOS: Mr. Lolos may be one of the dumbest Trump fans to be arrested as a result of his role in the Jan. 6 riot. He first made headlines, two days later, when on a Delta flight scheduled to leave Ronald Reagan Airport in D.C., he refused to stop yelling, “Trump 2020.” His plane returned to the gate, where Lolos was arrested. 

As an added “bonus,” an officer tasked with keeping watch on Lolos, “began scrolling through his personal Instagram feed and watched a video showing several people exiting a doorway from the East front of the Capitol Building during the insurrection.” As WUSA9 explains, “Court documents say the officer spotted Lolos in the group of rioters, wearing the same shirt he was wearing at the airport, holding a ‘Trump 2020 Keep America Great’ flag hooked with an American flag.” 

A search of the suspect’s baggage turned up the same flags, still attached. Souvenirs of a fun attack on democracy! Lolos has now agreed to plead guilty to a single charge related to the riot. 

At his sentencing on November 19, Lolos seemed to go for the “I’m nuts, so please don’t throw me in jail” defense: 

In a rambling speech to the court, Lolos, at times speaking with different accents, rehashed debunked claims of widespread voter fraud, said police encouraged him to go into the Capitol, claimed evidence against him was tainted, and encouraged anyone listening in on the court’s public call-in line to look up a video of himself online. Lolos refused to speak to his defense attorney, who repeatedly tried to stop Lolos from talking. 

 

Judge Amit Mehta was less than sympathetic, noting that Lolos’ own speech proved a little jail time was in order. 

“People like Mr. Lolos were told lies, were told falsehoods, were told the election was stolen when it was not,” he said. “Regrettably, people like Mr. Lolos who were told those lies took it to heart. And they are the ones paying the consequences.” 

“Those who orchestrated Jan. 6 have in no meaningful sense been held accountable,” the judge continued. 

“Those who created the conditions that lead to Mr. Lolos’ conduct have in no meaningful measure been held accountable,” the judge concluded. “You were a pawn. You were a pawn in the game played by people who know better,” he told the defendant. Lolos gets 14 days and a fine of $500. 

Trump supporter, believed election was stolen.

 

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Fun with fascism.

436. CHASE KEVIN ALLEN: The Seekonk, Massachusetts man was one in a crowd of rioters who smashed cameras and video gear in a media staging area outside the Capitol Building on January 6. 

The F.B.I. affidavit in Allen’s case notes, in part, 

As individuals moved past metal barricades that had been set up around the staging area, media members were forced to flee the area before recovering all their cameras and associated equipment. Numerous members of the crowd began to destroy the equipment, including cameras, tripods, lights, shades, and remote broadcasting equipment that belonged to various media outlets. Numerous members of the crowd yelled inflammatory rhetoric against the members of the media. One member of the media who was forced to flee the scene estimated that the equipment from his particular news organization that was destroyed was valued at between $30,000 and $34,000.

 

Allen can be seen in one video “repeatedly stomping on media equipment” and yelling at reporters to stop filming the riot and leave the area or remain at their own risk. 

Because nothing says, “fun with fascism” quite like burning books in 1933, or crushing cameras in 2021. 

(Let’s all stop for a moment here, to ponder all the times then-President Trump called the free press the “Enemy of the People.”) 

Allen posts videos he makes on YouTube, including one from the day of the attack, and told F.B.I. agents he may have titled it, “Cop vs. The American People.” 

In another video, Allen can be seen explaining his disdain for the media, a la Donald J. Trump. “In my opinion, they’re down with the CCP — the communist Chinese party,” he once said of reporters. “I don’t trust the seven major news networks, and neither should you.” 

Maybe, we shouldn’t trust Kevin, either. He get sentenced to 14 days in the slammer, to be served intermittently, and has to perform 50 hours of community service. In addition, he’s out $500.

Right-wing type.

 

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“Invited” by President Trump. 

437. ANTONY VO: The 28-year-old was arrested on July 26, 2021 and charged for his participation in the attack. 

On social media, he bragged about joining the assault, insisting he had been “invited” by President Trump. As The Insider reports: 

When asked online on January 5 as to what he was doing in Washington, D.C., he wrote online that “president [Trump] asked me to be here tomorrow so I am with my mom LOL.” In another conversation, the DOJ alleges Vo said, “My mom and I helped stop the vote count for a bit.” 

 

Several people tipped off the FBI regarding Vo’s time at the Capitol, including the spouse of someone in Vo’s former college fraternity. The witness said an image of Vo and his mother inside the Capitol was circulated among his fraternity members and Indiana University alumni. Two separate witnesses told investigators Vo was known to engage with “conspiracy theories” and was an “avid supporter” of Trump.

 

For a long time, when I checked, Antony’s mom hadn’t been charged. Antony was, and Antony opted for a jury trial. Antony got the jury, and the jury convicted him on all four misdemeanor counts. 

Antony got duped by Donald J. Trump.

 

FUN FACT: In January 2024, Mr. Vo petitions the court for permission to vacation in Cancun. 

The judge notes that he has ignored court orders requiring him not to communicate with other defendants, and says “no.” 

UPDATE: It took a while, but Antony’s mom was finally hit with charges in March 2024. Maybe, they can share the same lawyer. She’s now listed as Rioter #1404 on my massive list. On April 10, 2024, Antony gets sentenced to nine months in prison. 

UPDATE #2: Mr. Vo fails to report to prison in the summer of 2024, and is now considered a fugitive.

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

 

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How do you like it now? 

438. STEVEN CAPPUCCIO: On August 10, 2021, Mr. Cappuccio was charged with assaulting officer Daniel Hodges during the attack on Capitol Hill. That included beating Hodges on the head, after he was pinned by a crowd, with his own baton. 

He also jerked off Hodges’ gas mask, forcefully pulling his head in various directions, and asked, “How do you like it now, fucker!” 

As part of an expansive indictment, Cappuccio and eight others (see #439 to #444 below, and #255 and #396 listed previously) were charged with a sweeping array of crimes, with Cappuccio facing nine charges. He was hit with five different indictments – each increasing his legal peril. 

And then the blow came: On July 20, 2023, after a bench trial, he was found guilty on multiple counts. 

That included six (6) felonies. 

Well, Mr. Cappuccio, how do you like it now? On November 3, 2023, the defendant learns his fate: 85 months in prison, and 24 more on probation. Officer Hodges spoke at his sentencing, noting that he had been trained not to use a baton on a person’s head, because it could kill them. 

(Ironically, at a rally, the day before, former President Trump referred to the January 6 rioters, now in jail, not as prisoners, but “hostages.” He called it “a shame” they were locked up.) 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual, violent.

 

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439. DAVID MEHAFFIE: The Dayton, Ohio man is seen in video from Jan. 6, giving orders (or “directions,” if you prefer) to other members of the mob as they tried to breach police lines on the day of the riot. 

Say what you like about abortion, Mehaffie is a fervent foe, and his politics are on the right.

In a court case in 1997, Mehaffie was one of several protesters accused of illegally blocking access to an abortion clinic. 

After the judge declared a mistrial, Mehaffie told the Associated Press, “I do believe it’s a victory. God has given a victory over a federal government that has wholeheartedly endorsed, protected and even propagated infanticide.” 

Asked about his arrest, Mehaffie told the Dayton Daily News that he was actually trying to protect the police officer that day. 

“I would never, ever hurt a police officer,” he said. 

Indicted afresh, in the attack on January 6, along with eight others, Mehaffie has the distinction of being charged with the fewest crimes: To wit: five. In September 2022, he is found guilty on four charges, including two felonies. 

His prize for rioting: 14 months in prison. 

Right-wing person.

 

* 

440. TRISTAN CHANDLER STEVENS: Stevens is charged with ten assorted crimes, including wrenching a shield from a police officer during the riot and using it to strike out at other officers trying to hold off the mob. 

Like all nine individuals named in his indictment, he faces one charge of “intent to impede, disrupt and disturb the orderly conduct of a session of Congress.” Or as this blogger might put it: Stevens wanted to overturn the vote for the president, simply because he wasn’t satisfied with the result. 

The University of West Florida student, 25, has no previous criminal record, but could have one soon. 

That doesn’t help him in the end. At his sentencing hearing, Stevens spouts various conspiracy theories. He talks about Hunter Biden’s laptop, pedophilia being covered up, and says China is trying to weaken the USA, preparatory to invasion. The judge in his case notes that Stevens entered the tunnel area four different times, to battle with police, and calls his actions “disgraceful.” On March 10, 2023, he is sentenced to spend the next five years in prison. Fines and probation added. 

The rioter did have one hope, however, noting at his sentencing that he believed he would be pardoned by Trump after 2024. 

Trump supporter, QAnon, ready for violence.

 

*

 “Support the greatest President.”

441. DAVID LEE JUDD: Mr. Judd was accused of throwing a firecracker at police officers and joining a general assault in a tunnel leading into the Capitol Building. 

And why was he in D.C. on that fateful January 6? He explained in a social media post why he was going: 

Y’all read[y] to be apart [sic] of History??? My name is Judd!!! I worked for the president this year in Maine, I’m a Texas Patriot and American First Supporter. If anyone has an extra spot for the ride there and place to stay, I HAVE MY LICENSE TO CARRY A FIREARM, I am a professional driver and can help with driving and funds too!! It’s just me, I’m in north Dallas. Let’s fight to Save this Country and Support the greatest President.

 

At one point, he claimed he was a victim of  selective prosecution, due to his conservative beliefs – and demanded to see more Oregon BLM protesters jailed. 

A Trump-appointed judge made short work of his complaint, noting, “January 6 rioters … endangered hundreds of federal officials in the Capitol complex. Members of Congress cowered under chairs while staffers blockaded themselves in offices, fearing physical attacks from the rioters.” 

Prosecutors were seeking a seven-year sentence in Mr. Judd’s case. He was accused of spending “over an hour using hand gestures to direct rioters into the tunnel, yelling commands to organize rioters, passing items into the tunnel to be used as weapons, [and] assisting rioters exiting the tunnel.” 

He catches a “break” in the end, when the judge in his case sentences him to “only” 32 months in prison. 

Judd won’t be out in time to vote in the next election; but if Trump wins in 2024, maybe he’ll get a pardon. 

And then he can go back to planning to kill Biden supporters because they “stole” the 2020 election. 

No. Scratch that. See, for example, Fox News paying $787.5 million in damages for spreading the stolen election lie. 

Judd will also spend two additional years on supervised release and must pay $5,691 in fines and restitution. 

Trump supporter, right-wing type.

 

* 

Violent rioter expects pardon. 

442. CHRISTOPHER JOSEPH QUAGLIN: Among other counts, Quaglin was charged with inflicting bodily harm on a law enforcement officer on January 6. One charge was for using a chemical spray on officers. A second was for using a police shield to batter defenders of the Capitol. A third was for choking an officer and wrestling him to the ground. 

(Quaglin also showed up wearing a tactical helmet and gas mask/respirator, perfectly ready to riot in Donald Trump’s name. 

In one video from that day, he can be seen confronting police lines, shouting, at outnumbered officers, “You’re gonna bring a fucking pistol, I’m gonna bring a fucking cannon. You wait! You wait! You wait! Stay there like a fucking sheep!” 

Naturally, he’s wearing a “Make America Great Again” sweatshirt of some design, the words read vertically, in red, white and blue colors. Online, we also learn, Mr. Quaglin liked to go by the moniker, “Chris Trump.” 

He remained combative while awaiting trial, all the way up to and including sentencing. When we checked on June 27, 2023, to see how the defendant was faring, he was still in pre-trial detention, as his case proceeded (slowly). Three times he requested, through his lawyer, pre-trial release. 

Three times, the judge said, “No.” 

A bench trial was scheduled for July 10, 2023, but in a stipulated trial, Quaglin finally admitted guilt to several charges and apologized for wasting the court’s time – blaming his lawyer. 

Then he changed attorneys, several times – and complained about the terrible conditions in the jail where he was held. Meanwhile, he had the distinction of being charged with fourteen separate charges, and began to spread conspiracy theories whenever possible about what happened on January 6.

 

At sentencing, the judge called his actions a disgrace. But when prosecutors spoke of his role in an insurrection, Quaglin replied, “If I wanted to bring an insurrection, I would have brought a long gun.”

 

Again, like far too many rioters, Quaglin had expressed a willingness to kill other Americans to save America – and gain a second term for his hero, Donald J. Trump. 

In the end, he gets hit with one of the longest sentences from January 6. He’ll be in jail for twelve years.   

He said, however, that he wasn’t worried. Trump would be back in office in eight months. He’d get a pardon and even said he’d help the second Trump administration work on pre-trial detention reforms. 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

* 

“Made some friends.” May make more in prison. 

443. GEOFFREY WILLIAM SILLS: Mr. Sill was charged with using “a deadly or dangerous weapon,” that is, “a pole-like object” to attack officers defending Capitol Hill. He was also charged with taking a baton from an officer and using that officer and others battling the mob. 

During the battle inside a crowded tunnel, leading into the Capitol, Sills also used a strobe light to blind officers. 

A total of ten charges were leveled against him – and he eventually plead guilty to three. Like so many rioters that day, Sills initially posted videos to document his part in the attack. On Instagram that day,  he captioned clips “visited the Capitol today,” “made some friends” and “took a tour.” Soon after, Sills realized he might be in trouble and deleted his Instagram account. 

During a subsequent search of his house, by law enforcement, “Multiple items were recovered, including tactical style gloves with knuckle protection, black googles. a black flashlight with strobe function, a black gas mask, and a black riot-style baton, consistent with the one stolen from Officer C.W.” 

Officer C.W. later told the court that he was hit in the head with a baton, during the fight for the tunnel, but “because he was attacked so many times on January 6,” by various rioters, that he could not be sure if it was Sills who struck him with the baton. Prosecutors note that in November 2020, Sills bought gear from “Infidel Body Armor,” and “Freedom Fighters Tactic,” in preparation for his trip to D.C. Since violence was intended, they say, he should be sentenced to nine years. 

Not quite; but the judge gives Sills a chance to ponder the lies of Donald J. Trump (still no evidence proven in court, 868 days after the riot, that the election was stolen), while seated in prison. Court documents indicate that poor Sills was “fixated” on the idea that Trump had been cheated out of a second term. 

He will miss the chance to vote in 2024. 

And also the 2028 election. 

The judge in his case, a Trump appointee shows him no mercy. “Of all of the Jan. 6 defendants I have sentenced to date, your conduct is the most outrageous – the most troubling,” he tells Mr. Sills. He also calls the defendant a “foot soldier” who came to D.C. “prepared for trouble.” 

(Be all you can be in the Trump Army!)

 

Sills will be spending the next 52 months in prison. He will also be writing the federal government a check for $2,000 in restitution. 

Trump supporter, violent, believed the election was stolen.

 

* 

444. QUINN KEEN: The young man from Illinois is not pinched by authorities until April 2023, and finally charged for his role in the January 6 attack. He stands accused of kicking and punching police. A relative texted him, shortly afterward, “You’re a disgrace to yourself and america.” 

At various points in life, Keen had been homeless, and lived under a bridge. He did claim to have smoked a joint while inside the Capitol. 

He pleads guilty In February 2024. A press release from the Department of Justice describes Keen’s illegal actions that day: 

While on the Lower West Terrace, Keen confronted the police line and threw a water bottle and its contents at the officers. Moments later, other rioters had pulled a bike rack barricade from the police line to the ground. An MPD officer then bent over and attempted to pick the barricade up when Keen moved forward and shoved the officer with both of his hands, making physical contact and pushing the officer backward.

 

Keen then backed away and, approximately one minute later, threw a metal travel mug at other officers in the police line. The mug struck a plexiglass riot shield being held by one of the officers, deflected, and fell to the ground.

 

Keen remained on the West Plaza and was later seen entering the Capitol building via the Upper West Terrace door at approximately 2:38 p.m. Once inside, Keen traveled up a staircase and into the Capitol Rotunda with other rioters. While in the Rotunda, Keen gathered with other rioters and smoked marijuana. He then exited the Rotunda, moved towards the Senate chamber, and finally exited the Capitol about 3:15 p.m. via the East Rotunda Door. 

 

Keen is later convicted, and sentenced to two years behind bars, two more on probation, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. 

(LIKELY TRUMP SUPPPORTER – NOT DEFINITIVE.)

 

* 

445. Derek Gunby: Mr. Gunby did not help his defense when, on the morning of January 6, he posted on social media: “Up at Zero Dark Thirty to stop this steal.” (See also: James Douglas Lollis Jr., #533.) 

Nor did it help that he wore an old camouflage jacket to the riot – with his name clearly showing over his left front pocket: GUNBY.

As prosecutors noted, the defendant, 

believed that fraud occurred during the 2020 presidential election and that the election was stolen. Gunby held this belief so fervently that he left the Stop the Steal rally on the Ellipse and joined the mob that stormed the Capitol in order to obstruct the certification of the Electoral College vote count.

 

Gunby believed that patriots could not “depend on Mike Pence to do the right thing in certifying this vote” and needed to take matters into their own hands. 

 

A U.S. Army veteran who should have known better than to believe Trump’s lies, Gunby ends up being convicted on one felony and four misdemeanor charges in November 2023. 

He remains free on his own recognizance until sentencing. 

Trump supporter, he believed election the was stolen.

 

* 

“Wrong never felt so right.” 

446. LOGAN BARNHART: Barnhart, from Michigan, was arrested on August 18, 2021. He was charged with half-a-dozen crimes related to his participation in the Capitol Hill riot. According to ClickonDetroit, 

The 40-year-old calls himself a physique competitor and his Instagram was filled with shirtless photos as well as romance novel covers he’s modeled for. He also listed himself as a carnivore, patriot and fitness enthusiast. That account is now private after Barnhart was arrested by the feds Tuesday on a six-count indictment.

 

Huff Post adds a bit of color: “Photos of a shirtless Barnhart even graced the cover of romance novels with names like ‘Stepbrother UnSEALed: A Bad Boy Military Romance’ and ‘Lighter,’ which included the slogan ‘wrong never felt so right.’” Now, he stood accused of having dragged a police officer down the Capitol Hill stairs – which might make a good cover for a pro-Trump kind of romance novel. 

When then-President Trump sent a tweet promoting Jan. 6 as a “Historic day,” Barnhart was quick to pledge support. 

“I’ll be there,” he replied to @realDonaldTrump on Twitter. 

Now we know. Barnhart won’t be modeling anytime soon – unless it’s for an inmates’ calendar. 

On September 29, 2022, he plead guilty to assault on a police officer, using a deadly weapon. The following April, the defendant learns his fate: 3 years in prison – an no more modeling. He is also hit with a fine of $3,688 and ordered to fork over an additional $2,000 in restitution. 

The judge in his case adds in closing that Trump and his allies “bear a lot of responsibility for what happened that day.” 

Trump “sent us.”

 

* 

“I’m at peace with death and what I might have to do.” 

447. RONALD McABEE: Arrested seventh months after the riot, the Tennessean faced eight charges, including the most serious, “inflicting bodily injury” on a police officer. He is part of a group of at least seven men who took part in a full-blown attack on officers defending the front steps of the Capitol.  

The others arrested in connection with the same attack: Barnhart (below), Jeffrey Sabol (#85 on this list), Peter Francis Stager (#112), Clayton Ray Mullins (#261), Jack Wade Witton (#303), and Michael Lopatic Sr. (#304). 

McAbee was, before his arrest, a sheriff’s deputy himself. So you’d think he might have known better. According to court filings, prosecutors argue that on January 6 the suspect “dressed in a manner that indicates that he anticipated violence at the Capitol.” He purchased “metal-knuckled gloves,” and wore a tactical vest. He also armed himself with a police baton at one point. 

The word “SHERIFF” showed clearly on his vest, and McAbee sported a “Three Percenters” patch, as well. 

On September 24, 2021, the courts considered new video of the Capitol Hill attack. McAbee could be seen attacking police with spiked gloves and prosecutors asked the judge to deny pre-trial release. 

It didn’t help the defendant’s case when authorities released email exchanges between McAbee and another man (name redacted). McAbee wanted to know if the other individual was going to D.C. or not. He says, if he is, they can link up, and promises to “slap a commie” in the head. The other person assures McAbee he’ll be heading for the capital on January 6, and offers a picture of what he plans to carry in his pockets. The picture is small in the screenshot online; but clearly a set of brass knuckles is involved, and what looks like a short-bladed knife. 

McAbee then inquires for himself, “How do I get some knuckles.” His buddy suggests he try Amazon.com. 

There’s no doubt what the deputy expects. He and the other unidentified individual talk about not bringing their wives or girlfriends along. McAbee finally texts: “Well I don’t think the girls should be subject to violence. It will be there. And I’d rather not worry about them.” 

His text-message pal responds, “I’m at peace with death and what I might have to do.” He follows that up with a text about how hard it was to tell his kid he might never come home again. 

“Oh yeah but it’s for the cause,” McAbee says. 

Again his comrade responds, “He doesn’t understand that.” 

If you’d like to be appalled, take a look at their long text-message chain yourself. They discuss the mundane: doctor’s appointments that might interfere with their schedule for driving to Washington D.C., the $25 McAbee would owe if he wants a t-shirt to celebrate the big day. They even discuss how they plan to dress, “It’s gonna be chilley,” says McAbee’s bud. 

Then he assures the deputy, “I’ve got extra knives.” 

Let’s end it with this. At one point, McAbee’s contact says, “When you know what you’re doing is right and who you’re doing it for, what happens doesn’t matter.” 

In the days following the riot, the unnamed man predicts that Trump will be inaugurated on Jan. 20. 

McAbee responds, “I call for secession!” 

These guys sound nuts.

 

UPDATE: As of 9/26/23, when I update this entry, 1,057 days have passed since the last presidential election. 

Zero proof has emerged, to show that significant voter fraud did occur during the 2020 vote. Trump, however, faces four indictments – two of which involve plotting to steal the election for himself. 

McAbee has already pled guilty to two felonies, and will go to trial to try to overturn other charges. (His lawyer has argued that McAbee deserves credit for trying to perform CPR on Roseanne Boyland, the Trump fan, trampled to death by other Trump fans in the January 6 maelstrom.)

 

UPDATE #2: As of October 11, we are 1,071 days out from the last presidential election. Still no proof Biden didn’t win. 

A jury has considered McAbee’s case. In his defense, he insists all his violent rhetoric was just “locker room talk.” 

Cross-examination, however, does not go well for the defendant, as Jordan Fischer notes: 

McAbee just endured one of the more devastating cross-examinations I’ve seen. Asked by AUSA Benet Kearney why he didn’t use a (stolen) police baton to stop other rioters from dragging officers into the crowd, he responded, “I was adjusting my hat.”

 

Kearney also got McAbee to acknowledge that while he was grabbing an officer’s leg and pulling him toward the crowd – “repositioning” him, McAbee said – another officer was trying to pull him back to the police line. “You were in a tug of war,” Kearney said.

 

The jurors heard it all and more. 

Testifying on the stand last week, McAbee said that he watched Fox News and Newsmax and listened to conservative host Mark Levin’s radio show in the lead-up to the Capitol attack and that belief in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election was very common in his rural farm community. He said he came to Washington, a city he had visited only on an eighth grade field trip, because he wanted to see Trump for what he thought could be the last time.

 

“I wanted to see the president speak,” McAbee said. “I honestly thought that would be his last rally.”

 

McAbee said he felt shame and embarrassment about how he acted during the Capitol assault.

 

The jury was unmoved by his defense and voted unanimously to convict the former sheriff on all charges.

 

UPDATE #3: McAbee is sentenced to spend five years, and ten months in prison, with credit for time served, while awaiting trial. Once he gets out, he’ll be on probation for three more years. He also owes $32,165.65 in restitution. 

1,213 days have passed since Trump lost the last presidential election. No court has found proof otherwise than that he lost. 

Trump supporter, right-wing person, violent.

 

*

“I got one.” 

448. ALBUQUERQUE COSPER HEAD: Mr. Head, 41, was slammed with nine charges, including one for assaulting Officer Michael Fanone of the D.C. Metropolitan Police. 

At one point, he helped drag Fanone into the crowd, where he was tased and beaten, shouting happily, “I got one.” 

Like a number of other attackers on January 6, Head had been in legal trouble before.

According to one news report, 

The Sullivan County [Tennessee] Sheriff’s Office says Head had several run-ins with the law between 2000 and 2015, with charges including aggravated domestic assault in 2001, aggravated assault and vandalism in 2006, driving under the influence and evading arrest in 2007, and aggravated burglary and public intoxication in 2014.

 

In May 2022, he plead guilty to one charge of assault and in October the judge in his case gave him the second longest sentence related to the riot, so far.  Head will spend the next 90 months behind bars.) 

“The dark shadow of tyranny unfortunately has not gone away,” the judge warns at his sentencing. “There are those who are still disseminating the lie that the election was stolen.” 

That was true last fall, and when I edit this post on May 14, 2023, it’s still true. Trump is still lying. He still says he won. 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

*

Crowbar chiropractor? 

449. DR. DAVID WALLS-KAUFMAN: The defendant, a chiropractor, was initially accused of using a cane, crowbar, or similar object to assault Officer Jeffrey Smith during the riot, inflicting a brain injury. 

(Smith took his own life nine days after the attack.)

 

As The Guardian explains, “Jonathan Arden, DC’s former chief medical examiner, has attributed Smith’s death to post-concussion syndrome, which can lead to symptoms like depression and suicidal thoughts.” 

Walls-Kaufman admitted to an NBC reporter that he took part in the assault on Capitol Hill, but claimed he wasn’t a Trump supporter. 

What he was was a liar. Evidence shown at his sentencing, made that much clear: 

Walls-Kaufman, in the days after the election, shared an open letter to Trump on Facebook, calling on the then-president to “save this election” and do “everything” in his power to deliver the “honest” vote. The government said that, in an interview with the FBI after his arrest, Walls-Kaufman “extensively discussed misinformation about the 2020 election being ‘stolen’.” But in court on Tuesday, Walls-Kaufman said that he was a Democrat and that he did not know if the election was stolen.

 

In June 2022, the Washington Post reported that Walls-Kaufman might have scuffled with police, but did not appear to have been the rioter who struck Smith in the head. At that time, the defendant had not hired a criminal defense attorney, instead relying on the services of a public defender. 

He has, however, been hit with a civil suit, filed by Officer Smith’s widow, which allegedly shows him hitting Smith with his own baton. 

And on the same day Trump was indicted, Walls-Kaufman found out he’ll be spending 60 days eating his meals in a prison cafeteria. 

Trump supporter, believed the election was stolen, violent.

 

* 

Rejected-President Trump posts Obama home address. 

450. Taylor F. Taranto: A Navy veteran, and sufferer from PTSD, Taranto is accused of handing a weapon to Walls-Kaufman (#449, above), with which he struck Officer Smith. 

At the time of the attack on Congress, Taranto was webmaster for the Franklin County Republican Party (Washington State). Online, he described himself as someone who enjoyed “making memes and homeschooling my children” when not “helping the President take down the deep state.” 

During the actual riot, he posted on social media, “So…we’re in the Capitol building, the legislature building, we just stormed it.” 

(Sedition Hunters by Ryan J. Reilly, pp. 316-317.) 

 

In her civil suit against Taranto and Walls-Kaufman the officer’s widow alleges that on January 6, 

Kaufman was part of the insurrectionist mob inside the US Capitol and was being escorted out of the building by MPD officers. Co-Defendant Taranto handed a cane or crowbar (or similar object) to Kaufman. Kaufman, in turn, violently swung the cane and struck Officer Smith in the face/head. Officer Smith was in a particularly vulnerable situation because his face shield was up (leaving his face and eyes exposed). It appears that Kaufman and Taranto specifically and maliciously targeted Officer Smith because his visor was in the upright position, making him more vulnerable to this brutal and vicious attack.

 

The suit further alleges “the weapon appears to be the Ka-Bar TDI ‘self-defense’ cane,” perfect if you plan to join an attack on Capitol Hill. 

Taranto and Kaufman could – as any of the rioters so far not convicted – be absolved. Online sleuths, however, believe they have found video of the assault on Officer Smith, and believe Taranto and Kaufman are involved. 

Video shows Smith going down in the mob as another officer comes to his assistance. The sleuths zeroed in on two men who are right in front of Smith when that happens. Moments earlier, one of the men, holding a weaponized cane with a sharpened edge in one hand, had grabbed another officer’s baton. The second man – his face, visible in body camera footage, twisted in anger – can be seen lunging in Smith’s direction just before Smith goes down. Seconds later, the man is grabbing a police officer’s baton and fighting with them as he’s forced out of the building.

 

When I check my post again, in May 2023, Taranto does not yet appear to have been criminally charged. 

In June, however, Taranto makes fresh headlines. This time, he’s seen lurking not far from former President Obama’s house in Washington D.C. When the police confront him, he starts to run, but is apprehended after a brief foot chase. (Let’s just say, the lumpy suspect does not have the build of a marathon runner.) 

A search of his car turns up weapons and (it is said) materials needed to cook up a few Molotov cocktails. 

Earlier, that same day, Taranto is alleged to have re-posted a post from the Orange God of Mar-a-Lago, on Truth Social, where Rejected-President Trump listed what he said was the home address of the Obama family in D.C. Taranto is said to have responded, “Got them surrounded.” 

So, he gets the cuffs. 

Taranto, we mean. Not Trump. Not yet.

 

UPDATE (6/30/23): The latest report says no explosive materials were found. Only a machete. Oh: and guns and 400 rounds of ammunition. 

Taranto also turns out to have been a Franklin County, Washington State Republican Party official, before trying his hand at insurrection.

 

UPDATE (July 5, 2023): His problems are complicated further when, at his bail hearing, prosecutors allege that in a recent live-stream video, Taranto indicated “he intended to blow up his vehicle” in front of a U.S. Commerce Department facility. 

They further allege that when in Obama’s neighborhood, the defendant, “Made several concerning statements regarding the residences in the area, saying that he was looking for entrance points, that he had control of the block & had them surrounded … [and hoped] to find a way to the tunnels underneath their houses[.]” 

Or, as Rejected-President Trump would have it: He’s a patriot, always anxious to “Make America Great Again.” 

According to Scott MacFarlane, who does excellent work following the story of the often malicious or murderously-inclined J6 crew, an assault-style rifle turned up in Taranto’s vehicle when he was arrested near the Obama home, along with a pistol. Taranto is also registered as owner of twenty firearms, meaning that eighteen “are at large.” Finally, prosecutors warn, “Taranto appears to express delusional beliefs which are inconsistent with reality.”

 

UPDATE (July 12, 2023), following a series of court hearings, Taranto remains in custody, partly for his own good. Judge Faruqui tells the veteran, “As a country, we have failed you.” Then he adds that the person telling Taranto to do these things is “not here.” 

I assume he means Donald J. Trump.

 

UPDATE (February 15, 2024): In a superseding indictment, Taranto is hit with five additional felony charges, related to his threats to blow up a federal building. You will also be thrilled to know that the defendant owned twenty guns – with authorities unable to account for eighteen, so far. 

Taranto, protesting peacefully in 2022, which is his right.

 Trump supporter, ready for violence. 

* 

451. THOMAS BALLARD: Ballard, from Texas, was one of many rioters charged with assaulting police officers on January 6. He was nattily attired that day in an “Infowars” baseball cap. 

He also accessorized with a gas mask. 

As for his actions that day, Ballard joined the biggest fight, at the lower tunnel entrance into the Capitol. It was the same tunnel Trump exited in 2017, on his own Inauguration Day. Oh, “fond” memories! 

After arming himself with a police baton, Ballard made his way to the Lower West Terrace and the tunnel area of the Capitol building where some of the most violent conflict was inflicted on police officers on January 6. Ballard initially arrived at the tunnel at approximately 3 p.m. He watched the violent assaults against the police inside the tunnel unfold for more than an hour before entering the tunnel, where he actively joined in.

 

About 4:28 p.m., Ballard was near the entrance of the tunnel as multiple rioters battled with police officers defending the Capitol. Ballard began a series of assaults on police officers using numerous makeshift weapons that included a piece of metal scaffolding, several pieces of a wooden plank, and a white metal pole. At approximately 4:47 p.m., Ballard threw a tabletop at officers. 

Ballard then picked up an item from the ground and threw it at the officers. After searching the ground for additional projectiles, he threw what appeared to be a table leg at the officers. As the battle at the mouth of the tunnel continued, Ballard remained at the front line of rioters assaulting officers and the Capitol. About 4:50 p.m., he began assaulting officers with the police baton. 

His assault on the officers in the tunnel took another turn at 4:51 p.m., when Ballard pointed a flashing strobe light at them to temporarily blind or distract them. Ballard then threw a cup of some unknown liquid at officers. He continued his assault by sliding scaffolding at the officers’ feet and legs. Finally, just prior to leaving the battle at the tunnel, Ballard threw a pole at officers.

 

When not rioting, Ballard did motorcycle repairs for a living. Or at least, he did. On July 14, 2023, he pled guilty to felony charges. 

A bunk in a federal prison awaits. 

 

UPDATE (December 13, 2023): Mr. Ballard learns his fate. He will serve 54 months in prison for his misplaced allegiance to Donald Trump. As of today, that makes him one of 81 rioters to have earned a prison sentence longer than Trump’s first term in office. 

We should also note that 1,135 days have passed by the time Ballard is sentenced. Yet no court has found any proof of significant voter fraud in the last presidential election. Ballard will now have 1,461 days behind bars to ponder that conundrum. He also owes the federal government $2,000 in restitution. 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

* 

452. DEVLYN THOMPSON: CBS tells the story of Thompson, who plead guilty to various charges on August 6. Charges included, 

assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon — in his case, a baton. According to the Department of Justice, the 28-year-old used the metal baton in an apparent attempt to knock a can of pepper spray from an officer’s hand. He was also part of a group that “threw objects and projectiles at the officers, including flag poles” and stole riot shields to prevent police from being able to defend themselves, the DOJ said. 

 

At his sentencing hearing later, Mr. Thompson expressed some remorse, whether real or feigned, we cannot know. “My message to fellow conservatives,” he wrote in a letter to the court, “or any American dissenting with the current administration, is that we must continue our work within the confines of the system and condemn the actions on January 6^th as atrocious.” 

He also writes: “The officers at the Capitol and on the grounds that day deserve praise and gratitude for their service. If put in their shoes, I am not sure if I would have exemplified the courage and resolve shown by so many." 

He gets 46 months in prison, a $4,000 fine, and an additional three years of supervised release. 

Ready for violence, right-wing type.

 

* 

“Right-wing faithful.” 

453. MADISON PETTIT: The 20-year-old Swanton, Ohio woman entered the Capitol on Jan. 6 with her boyfriend Gabe Burress. 

The two were not arrested until August 20, 2021. 

In December 2021, Ms. Pettit plead guilty to a single charge and agreed to cooperate with investigators, including providing access to any social media she may possess. She is sentenced to 18 months of probation, 45 days on house arrest, 60 hours of community service, and $500 in restitution. 

How did this young lady end up facing possible jail time? 

According to Pettit’s sentencing memorandum, she was a member of the “right-wing faithful” that believed the repeated messaging from conservative leaders that Joe Biden only won the 2020 presidential election because of voter fraud.

 

“Trump constantly stoked the fires [emphasis added] claiming there was an organized effort from his adversaries to ‘steal’ the election. This was nuclearized with the message that the conservative vote as a whole was being neutralized,” the memo said. 

Trump supporter, believed in “stolen election.”

 

* 

454. GABE BURRESS: Burress admits he and Pettit entered the Capitol Building but says he did so only after he was pushed by a crowd behind him. 

In March 2022, he pleads guilty and receives a relatively mild sentence, as did Ms. Pettit. That includes 45 days of home confinement and 18 months on probation.

Trump supporter.

 

* 

Arrested along with mom. 

455. JODI LYNN WILSON: Wilson and her son, Cole Temple (below) were charged with unlawful entry of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Wilson at first denied having entered when questioned by F.B.I. agents. Shown photographs putting her inside, starting at 3:01 on that day, she changed her story and said police officers had “held the door open for (her)” and that an officer had “told me that’s what I could do, and I went in, and that’s all that I did.” 

When reporters went to the Wilson home in August 2021, they noticed an American flag hanging upside down, an international sign of distress. 

The Toledo Blade described some of her social media posts: A picture of Trump, and a caption, “This is MY PRESIDENT and he is legendary!!!” She also posed for a photo in front of a Trump 2020 flag in another post. In 2012, someone prankster stuck an Obama sign in her yard. She stated she “made a few changes to it hope everyone likes it.” Using spray-paint, she added a cross – kind of a Christian symbol maybe – or possibly a K.K.K. kind of vibe. 

Gregory Van Gunten, an attorney representing Gene Wilson, Jr., in a divorce proceeding and child custody case with Ms. Wilson, briefly commented on Friday about Ms. Wilson’s political views.

 

“It became apparent in the course of the litigation that Jodi had certain political points of view that aligned her with QAnon,” Mr. Van Gunten told The Blade.

 

Ms. Wilson, 43, pleads guilty in December 2022, to a single misdemeanor charge. Her reward for being such a dolt? Ten days in jail, and three years, during which she can visit with her probation officer. 

Trump supporter, QAnon.

 

* 

456. Cole Temple: Wilson’s son, 20, has also admitted having entered the Capitol Building. 

Temple also told authorities he and his mother traveled to D.C. to attend the protest of the certification of the electoral votes. 

According to the affidavit filed in his case, Cole can be quite the potty mouth. Videos he posted on social media include the captions “Shits going down [sic]” and “Goahead, say some shit.” A portion of the same video appears to show TEMPLE inside the U.S. Capitol, filming himself and yelling “just broke in this bitch.” 

Mother and child may have been inside the Capitol Building for only a few minutes – but long enough to get charged with two federal offenses. 

Cole is awaiting sentencing.

Trump supporter. 

 

*

“Yesterday was the most beautiful day that I’ve ever had.”

HELPFUL HINT: If you have any doubt about who the rioters were on that January day, Dorothy and Vanessa Treft, a mother-daughter pair, from Seneca County, Ohio, can shed a ray of light. Although they have not been charged with any crimes, they’re the kind of people who filled the crowd. 

On Jan. 7 they talked to reporters about their “incredible” experience. “Yesterday was the most beautiful day that I’ve ever had. I am 62 years old,” Dorothy said. 

“For me I feel like our country died yesterday because everything that we thought to be truth about what we love about our republic, we didn’t get any due process,” Vanessa added. 

“We were not rioting and they were shooting off those flash grenades and everything else like we were the enemy and we were being attacked. They incited it,” Vanessa said, blaming the attack on the police! 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election” (mom). 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election” (daughter).

 

* 

457. EZEKIAL “ZEKE” STECHER: Stecher, who identified himself in a video as “Zeke Stecher from New Jersey” during the day of the attack, was charged with assaulting an officer. 

If nothing else, Stecher was persistent, spending hours in or around the Capitol, and getting sprayed with chemical irritants on at least three occasions. He gets hit first at 3:04 p.m., during a pitched battle with police defending a tunnel entrance into the Capitol. He retreats – returns to the attack – gets sprayed again at 4:47. Clearly a slow learner, Farmer Zeke gets sprayed again at 5:35, and spends the rest of the riot washing his face. As a result, Stecher faced five federal charges, including both felonies and misdemeanors. 

It takes a little time, but on June 16, 2023, Stecher pled guilty to one charge of civil disorder, which carries a maximum sentence of five years behind bars. In other words, he could spend more time in jail than Trump spent in the Oval Office. That would be ironic, I think. 

In January 2024, he gets his present: 60 days behind bars, and 730 more on probation. 

Violent.

 

 

*

458. Joseph Irwin: The former Hardin County, Kentucky deputy sheriff faced mostly lower-level criminal charges related to his role in the riot. Irwin was arrested on August 17, 2021. 

Later, he got hit with felony charges – and, in May 2024, he was convicted. 

It took time, but when John Richter (#1008) was finally charged, we learned where Mr. Irwin stood on the political spectrum. 

After Trump sent his “be wild” message, the two friends developed a plan. “Muster for liberty,” Richter texted Irwin. “Let’s show these liberal soy boys what the sleeping giant looks like when it’s up, angry, and ready to fight.” 

“Are we going open militia or innocent/ready bystander?” Irwin asked in a text message reply. 

As a DOJ memo on their convictions notes: 

The two also discussed bringing supplies to Washington, D.C., such as flagpoles, goggles, battery banks, and full-face gas masks. In one message, Richter circulated a photo of a metal pointed flagpole he intended to bring to Washington, D.C. Richter explained that he would bring the all-black American flag because the “All black flag means no quarter will be given. It’s time to do patriot s—.” Irwin also discussed bringing a wooden pole that he inscribed with a black American flag; he said that his “wooden stick is heavy as f—.”

 

They weren’t tricked into rioting. They came to D.C., ready for trouble, and found it. 

Trump supporter, ready for violence.

 

* 

459. MICHAEL AARON CARICO: According to federal investigators, Carico can be seen in videos, inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. He is wearing the same clothing, gloves, and hat which he also wears in a private Instagram account, namely, “black and brown gloves and camouflage clothing with an American flag patch on his shoulder.” 

In one social media post, Carico includes hashtags #trump2020, #timetofight, and #keepamericagreat. 

These are accompanied by a picture of Carico, in a kneeling position, firing an assault rifle (probably at imaginary Biden voters). 

In one video from the day of the riot, Carico offers up this nugget of democratic thinking, “Hey, Nancy,” he says, “go fuck yourself.” 

(He pleads guilty, gets 60 days of home confinement, 60 hours of community service, $1,000 in fines and restitution, and two additional years on probation.)

 

UPDATE: We now know that Carico gave up the goods on one of his companions that day. He identified James Flint-Smith (#1567 on our list) as one of his comrades in mob action. Flint-Smith was finally charged in August 2024. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

*

The firebomber goes to D.C.

John Brockhoeft: As Colorado News Online reports: “Brockhoeft, who was convicted of firebombing an Ohio abortion clinic and planning to bomb another in Florida in the 1980s, livestreamed his exploits at the Capitol on Facebook, writing that he was ‘fighting for our beloved President Donald J. Trump.’” 

Brockhoeft may have had the sense to stay outside, and has not been arrested yet; but he’s the kind of person, when you go looking for stories about rioters, who keeps popping up in all  the reports. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

Tayler Hansen was inside the Capitol, taking pictures during the riot and has not been arrested yet. (He may be protected by his claim to be a journalist of some kind – and he does have his own Twitter…um…X…account. 

 He later scored an interview with Laura Ingraham, and naturally tried to downplay the attack. 

He was filming when Ashli Babbitt was shot. The conservative Washington Examiner explains: 

He rejected the notion that Hansen [clearly: Babbitt] posed a threat to others. “She was literally there just to support her president. She wasn’t being violent. She wasn’t breaking anything. She just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Hansen said.

 

Ingraham mentioned there were “hard to make out” images or videos circulating the internet which appeared to show Babbitt “at the door” in the moments leading up to the shooting. One video showed a woman starting to climb through a broken window before being shot and falling back and onto the floor.

 

Hansen said that a man, who had “started going berserk and punching,” was breaking windows on a barricaded door before law enforcement opened fire. Hansen said he heard the shot ring out and saw Babbitt hit the ground.

 

“By no means was she kicking any doors in or even vandalizing anything,” Hansen said of Babbitt, adding later that he stopped filming and joined others in trying to stop the bleeding, but “there was nothing we could do.”

 

Hansen, who said he is a supporter of law enforcement whose “job” is to “infiltrate these people” in places such as Portland, Oregon, suggested the other man was part of antifa based on his behavior.

 

Unlike Ingraham, I’ve taken the time to look into the backgrounds of hundreds of the rioters on January 6. 

So far, including this, I’ve logged twenty claims of Antifa types leading the attack on Capitol Hill and turned up a total of zero actual rioters with links to Antifa. In fact, only two rioters, so far, seem to have had left-wing political views. 

Hansen himself is an anti-abortion activist – just the type of person you’d expect to find in an ordinary Trump crowd.

Right-wing type.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

* 

460. ISAIAH FARNSWORTH: There are a number of reasons you don’t want to be arrested and have your picture bandied about in the news. Farnsworth has at least two. First, he has been charged with having participated in the January 6 riot. 

Second, in stories about his arrest, it is noted that he is a registered sex offender in Broomfield, Colorado. 

In a video he posted on Facebook that day, Mr. Farnsworth explains why he was in D.C.  “We have a right to be at our house,” “We have a right to be on our lawn,” “We have a right to bring our grievances to the government,” and “Never, never be passive about such a powerful government any longer.” 

Initially, he faced three charges, although none were felonies. Inside the Capitol, he did shout at others not to break or steal anything. But it turns out he was the guy who broke open an office door. 

He pleads guilty to one count of destruction of federal property. His penalty in the end: three months in jail, three years on probation, and $11,860 in fines and restitution. 

Trump supporter.

* 

461. CLIFFORD METEER: According to the criminal complaint filed in his case, on January 5, Meteer promised, in a social media post, “I’ll be in DC on the 6th protesting the stolen election.” 

He can be seen in videos from that day, carrying a sign which read on one side “STOP THE STEAL” and on the other “SAVE THE REPUBLIC.” 

After the attack, Meteer, 66, also posted this message to a friend: “That’s My House,” he wrote. “I saw no violence, no vandalism, no mayhem. But, from my point of view, as I have no doubt that skullduggery was done at the polls, the legitimacy of congress has been revoked.” 

Echoing Trump. 

Getting arrested as a result. 

Also getting convicted and sentenced to spend sixty days in jail, and spend the next three years checking with a probation officer. 

His lawyer later told the judge that he had tried to convince Meteer that the election wasn’t stolen, but to no avail. Meteer would only admit that he was an “idiot scaling the [outer] wall” on the day of the riot.

 

The day after the riot, he posted on Facebook:  “The democrat stealing the election is the cause of loyal citizens storming the Bastille. That’s Our house. They don’t get to disregard our vote.” 

Duh. 

“They” didn’t. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

462. DARRELL ALAN YOUNGERS: In the indictment against Youngers and George Tenney III (#407 on the list), authorities note that Tenney admits he entered the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. 

Youngers is also observed inside the Capitol on the day of the riot. He and Tenney, and a third man, Robbie Norwood (below), shared a room or communicated with each other while in Washington D.C. 

Youngers is at right in the photo below. 

 

According to one report, Youngers and Tenney claimed they spent only a few minutes inside the Capitol before realizing something bad was going down. In a video from that day, Youngers talked about his experience. He said he and Tenney were “not being violent,” but “had forced their way in,” admitting there had been “little fights between the protestors and the security,” but “no shootouts.” 

Yay! No shootouts! 

Youngers is apparently a former Marine. 

He pleads guilty to a single charge in March 2022, and agrees to cooperate further with authorities. In September, he learns his punishment: $1,500 in fines and restitution, three years on probation. 

Trump supporter.

*

 “I’ll look just like I’m ANTIFA.”

463. William Robert “Robbie” Norwood III: It does not help Mr. Norwood’s defense to note that text messages he sent in the wake of the riot indicate that he was proud to have attacked Capitol Hill police. 

In one message, Robbie explains, “I’m dressing in all black. I’ll look just like I’m ANTIFA.” Then he texts, “I’ll get away with anything.” 

This is idiotic on so many different levels – but Norwood is too idiotic to realize his own idiocy. 

In the midst of a riot, he somehow believes police officers will be differentiating, based on the color of clothing that rioters wear. On Jan. 7, he texts proudly to friends: “It worked... I got away with things that others were shot or arrested for.” “The cop shot a female Trump supporter. Then allowed ‘ANTIFA Trump supporters’ to assault him. I was one of them. I was there. I took his shit.” He includes a photo of himself “wearing what appears to be a U.S. Capitol Police tactical vest underneath a zipped up camouflage jacket.” Later on in a text message thread, “NORWOOD tells the group: ‘I fought 4 cops, they did nothing. When I put my red hat on, they pepper balled me.’” Norwood also tells the group, “I got a nice helmet and body armor off a cop for God’s sake and I disarmed him. Tell me how that works.” 

It “works,” bozo, because rioters like you and your dumbass friends badly outnumbered the police on Jan. 6. 

At least one person on the text thread grasps the same point. As the indictment against Norwood explains: 

In the text thread, T.D., whose text messages appear in blue [photos are included in the indictment], attempts to reprimand NORWOOD for his conduct, stating “You admitted to going and being something you’re accusing other people of being. And then got mad and blamed others for the same thing you did. What the actual fuck is wrong with you?” (Photo 8). Eventually, NORWOOD responds, “The one cop who deserved it, got it,” and “The cops who acted shitty got exactly what they deserved . . . The ones who were cool, got help.” (Photo 9).

 

So, there we are. Norwood is the twenty-first person (in my tabulations) to say that left-wing types led the riot. 

Norwood even dressed up as an Antifa type. 

So far, I’ve checked the arrest records for more than 1,500 individuals – and exactly ZERO are members of Antifa. 

To add to his legal problems, Norwood is later accused of threatening his estranged wife, sending her this ominous message: “IT’S TIME YOU MADE SHIT RIGHT BY ME!!!! YOU BETTER TELL MY LAWYER YOU WILL NOT TESTIFY AGAINST YOUR HUSBAND!!!” 

He has since pleaded guilty to one felony, and should be going to jail for a goodly period, unless Trump wins a second term, and pardons all the criminals. 

Right-wing, violent. 

 

* 

464-465. WALTER J. MESSER and THERESE BORGERDING: The two Ohioans were thrilled (I think you might say) to travel to D.C. in January 2021 and riot, in an effort to stop pedophile liberals from taking over the United States. True, that’s not what was about to happen, but they believed it was. That meant it was time to destroy democracy and stop the imaginary pedophiles before it was too late! 

Messer texted on that day, “Joe Biden is claiming Trump supporters were taking selfies with capital police. This is true. I’m glad the police took time out for these selfies during the fake riot.” 

Court records show that Borgerding commented on Messer’s post, telling another commenter, who had been critical, “Walt was there. You weren’t. You have no story to tell. You might want to shut your mouth.” 

Borgerding later commented again about Capitol police, saying: “I know they helped me and were very friendly and held the door for us to come in the Capitol Building!” 

Yes, indeed, that is why only 140 officers were injured that day. In fact, in another text, sent at 2:16 p.m. that day, Messer admitted, “the capital [sic] just got stormed.” 

According to court records, both Messer and Borgerding were also seen inside the Capitol, carrying QAnon signs. 

On June 12, 2023, Messer agrees to plead guilty to a single misdemeanor charge related to his part in the attack. His reward for being a dope: two years’ worth of trips to see his probation officer, and a $500 fine. 

Ms. Borgerding opts for trial by jury; and on April 29, 2024, the jury opts for finding her guilty on all charges, both misdemeanors and felonies. On September 5, 2024, the judge opts for sending her to jail for 50 days, adding 130 days on home confinement, three more years on probation, and orders her to pay $2,000 in restitution.

 

FUN FACT: At the same time, former President Donald J. Trump has now admitted three times that he lost the 2020 election. 

Trump supporter, QAnon believer (Messer).

Trump supporter, QAnon believer (Borgerding).

 

The indictment against Therese Borgerding includes evidence that her husband, Richard Borgerding, may have breached the Capitol, as well. He has not been arrested. He’s a Trump supporter too. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“No way in hell Biden is getting the presidency.” 

466. STEWART PARKS: A picture recovered from Parks’ phone, taken during a Southwest Airlines flight to D.C., features a “Four More Years” hat in the foreground and bears the caption: “ON THE WAY TO D.C. TO STOP THE STEAL.” 

Two other messages he sent on the night of January 6, read: 

“we ain’t giving up” 

“No way in hell Biden is getting the Presidency.” 

On January 9, a friend on social media messaged Parks, “I’m glad you took those vids down now because the fbi is hunting yall.” 

So what happened. Biden did get the presidency. Parks got charged with four offenses. Then he asked for a change of venue – for his trial before a jury to be moved to Tennessee, instead of D.C. Then the judge said “no.” Parks settled for a bench trial, in front of a judge only. Then Parks testified in his own defense, and claimed that on the day of the attack he didn’t realize he was in a “restricted area” when he broke into the Capitol with all those other supposedly clueless nitwits. 

Then the judge said he didn’t believe the testimony Parks was offering in his defense, asking, rhetorically, “Do you take me for a fool.” 

Then (we must assume) Mr. Parks’ heart sank because he realized the judge was about to find him guilty on all four counts – including both misdemeanors and felonies – and the judge did. And now Parks is going to jail. 

He probably won’t get out until after the 2024 election is over. 

(He did, apparently, get a police metal detector wand as a souvenir, while he was part of the riot.)

 

UPDATE: Maybe Parks will get out in time to vote – only he’ll be a convicted felon, so in some states he’ll lose his voting rights. We know this. On November 16, 2023, Mr. Parks was sentenced to eight months on one charge, six on another, but those sentences to run concurrently. Plus, the judge agreed that the defendant could self-surrender, perhaps after the holidays. 

And, if you wonder why these cases drag along, look at the record in his case at Court Listener. A total of 104 legal steps are listed, many with multiple parts, leading to this bitter (for Parks) legal ending.

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.” 

  

Then (we must assume) Mr. Parks’ heart sank because he realized the judge was about to find him guilty on all four counts – including both misdemeanors and felonies – and the judge did. And now Parks is going to jail. 

He probably won’t get out until after the 2024 election is over. 

(He did, apparently, get a police metal detector wand as a souvenir, while he was part of the riot.) 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

467. MATTHEW BAGGOTT: Pictures and material recovered from Parks’ phone placed Baggott inside the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

At least one witness told F.B.I. agents that Baggott and Parks had traveled to D.C. to attend the “Stop the Steal” Rally, which headlined (as well all know) none other than President Donald J. Trump. 

Baggott faced three charges. In August 2023, he pleaded guilty, got three months in prison, a year on probation, sixty hours of community service, and had to pay $500 in restitution. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

468. ROBERT BALLESTEROS: According to the affidavit for his arrest, Ballesteros posted an Instagram video, during which “an individual” states, “Look at this. We broke into the Capitol building.” In the background others can be heard screaming, “Our house.” 

In another exchange of text messages, Ballesteros tells a friend he did breach the building, “Put my foot in that door” he says. Then, “Made my stand[.]” 

When asked if one of his friends joined the riot, Ballesteros replied, nah, he was “a liberal.” 

For his efforts, Mr. Ballesteros gets hit with $500 in restitution, an order to complete forty hours of community service, and three years on probation. 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“Today was something special if you were there.” 

469. LUKE WESLEY BENDER: Bender was turned in by a high school classmate, and arrested on July 30, 2021, after he was recognized in pictures from the day of the riot. In one, he can be seen standing on the Senate dais, near the “QAnon Shaman,” Jacob Chansley (#101 on our list.) 

According to F.B.I. agents, a video on his Instagram account, taken from the top of the Capitol building scaffolding on January 6 includes a male voice saying, “We’re storming the Capitol.” The video was captioned: “Today was something special if you were there. It was great to be apart [sic] of it. #trump2020 #trump #dc #capital.” 

Evidence from Bender’s phone led eventually to the arrest of Landon Mitchell (#815 on our list). Both Bender and Mitchell have since plead guilty and await sentencing on five charges, including one felony, each. 

Bender gets “something special” in the way of 21 months in prison, 36 additional months on probation, and a bill for $2,000. 

Trump supporter.

* 

470. STEVEN BILLINGSLEY: According to the affidavit for his arrest, Billingsley was ready to rumble on January 6. 

In a series of videos he allegedly recorded that day, 

In one video, as BILLINGSLEY neared the capital, he saw an individual climbing scaffolding and shouted, “Yeah, baby storm the capital! That’s where the thieves are!” As he walked further toward the building, he entered the Capitol grounds adjacent to the Peace Monument and Peace Circle…and crossed over the area that has been cordoned off as restricted grounds due to the Vice President’s presence at the Capitol. As he stepped over metal barricades lying on the ground, he stated, “This is where they had it closed off. We’re going past it.”

 

As BILLINGSLEY walked farther on the grounds, he said, “We’re going as far as we can get.” When he neared a barricaded, canopied entry point on the grounds closer to the Capitol building, he shouted in the direction of police officers standing guard there, “We are going through the that barricade. Fuck you people, this is our house.” He continued shouting at the officers, “We are going through. We can do it the nice way or the hard way… You guys turned on us.” As BILLINGSLEY talked with others who had gathered near the canopy, he stated, “Who cares about them cops? We overpower them.” He screamed at the cops, “We’re going to walk right in there. Go get your little bicycles.” He told another person, “If they contest one state, we’re tearing this motherfucker down.

 

At one point, Billingsley joins the chanting crowd, “Stop the Steal.” He tells officers that they can’t “stop three million,” indicating that Billingsley probably can’t count very well. “This is war,” he adds. 

Forced to retreat at one point, rioters notice members of Congress looking out the windows of the Capitol. One person remarks, “We don’t want to hurt ‘em.” 

Billingsley disagrees: “No, we do want to hurt Pelosi. I do. Yeah, I would hang her from that big – you see that tree over there? We’d put a rope and hang her. We hang her and Schumer over there, they’ll all go, ‘Oh, shit.’” 

For more “fun” with Steven Billingsley, feel free to read from his indictment. 

Trump supporter, violent, believed in “stolen election.”

 

* 

471. Brian Glenn Bingham: Bingham was turned in by a woman who had served with him in the U.S. Army. But by the time federal agents began searching his social media posts, all pictures and videos that might have placed him inside the Capitol Building had been erased. 

A warrant was issued, and Facebook records soon showed that Bingham had, indeed, breached the halls of Congress. It turned out Bingham was in close proximity to Ashli Babbitt when she was shot and killed. On January 7, he posted a video, in which he claimed, “The door [to the Capitol] was open and we walked in and didn’t break anything, the girl was killed inside door at right at the end of video You decide? Telling people to be peaceful as we walked in, hmm.” 

Apparently, Bingham missed all the smashing of windows and doors and the pounding on police officers that countless news organizations recorded. 

In fact, around 2:55 p.m., as officers try to clear the building, Bingham allegedly decides to resist: 

As the officers are trying to move the crowd out of the Capitol building, BINGHAM turns to confront the officers. The officers continue to try to move BINGHAM out and BINGHAM squares up with an officer and appears to shout at him. As the officer continues to push BINGHAM toward the doorway BINGHAM appears to throw a punch or a shove at the officer with his right arm. As BINGHAM continues to scuffle with the officer, other officers get involved to pull BINGHAM away from the officer he attacked. Eventually the officers are able to get BINGHAM away from the officer he attacked and push BINGHAM towards the doorway where BINGHAM then exits the Capitol building.

 

Another video, taken from a different angle shows the suspect “squaring up with Officer [Kwaku] Agyeman and ultimately attacking Officer Agyeman.” 

Additional police body camera videos 

contain sound, and prior to the altercation, BINGHAM is heard shouting the following at the officers:

 

“You won’t hurt ANTIFA, but you’ll murder innocent girls!”

 

“Where do you want me to move? Push me again!”

 

Later in the day, on or about January 6, 2021, BINGHAM exchanged messages on Facebook with another Facebook user (“Individual-5”). In the messages, BINGHAM confirmed his assault on the officers. Below is an excerpt of the exchange:

 

Individual-5: Are you ok?

 

BINGHAM: I got to manhandl[e] 5 cops and live to tell

 

Individual-5: Lol… All of this does not surprise me! Stay safe. Trump2020 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

* 

Tambourine lady took “instructions” from Trump.

472. SARA CARPENTER: Carpenter, 51, is a retired New York City cop, who said she went to the Capitol after receiving instructions from then-President Donald J. Trump. Ironically, the NYPD worked closely with the F.B.I. Joint Terrorism Task Force to coordinate her arrest. 

As CNBC reported, “Carpenter on Jan. 18 told FBI agents during an interview that she drove to Washington on Jan. 5 and the following morning ‘went to the rally point where Trump’s Twitter page has instructed all supporters to hear about the election fraud,’ the filing said.” 

According to the former cop, when current cops began pushing the crowd out of the Capitol, she was trampled and pepper sprayed. For some reason she was carrying a tambourine that day. Before she left the building, she turned, raised her left hand high, and gave it a vigorous shake. 

Ms. Carpenter was hit with three misdemeanor charges, but is said to have cooperated with authorities and remained free on a non-monetary bond. 

She turned in both her passport and her tambourine, the latter as evidence in the case against her. 

 

UPDATE: The blogger clearly missed some intervening steps in Carpenter’s legal battles. On March 9, 2023, she was convicted on all seven charges she faced, both felonies and misdemeanors. A superseding indictment was filed in her case; but I’m not sure why. Prosecutors appear not just to hit her with the book, but to walloped her on the head a few times.

 

UPDATE #2: In December 2023, I see prosecutors are seeking a sentence of 66 months in prison, in Carpenter’s case. Once inside the Capitol, court documents say, it was Carpenter who “rallied other rioters” to follow her into the Senate Chamber, in hopes of thwarting counting of the electoral votes. 

In days leading up to the attack, Carpenter texted a “count-down clock” to a friend, with January 6 as the endpoint. She also discussed her funeral, in case she didn’t come back from D.C. 

At her trial, a Capitol Police lieutenant described the scene, as seen from bleachers set up for the January 20 inauguration. Carpenter was close by, urging on others. According to the trial transcript, “Lieutenant Dove described how badly the officers were outnumbered, likening the scene to an ocean of people. Furthermore, Lt. Dove described how he had ‘never seen anything like January 6,’ and that was in comparison to working in the District on September 11, during the anthrax scares, and during the D.C. sniper scare.” 

Around that time, Carpenter stepped down from the bleachers, advanced toward the building alone, and held and shook her tambourine high. 

Her “brazenness inspired other rioters to follow her lead, moving down from the bleachers to the Upper West Terrace.” 

By 2:44 p.m., police lines in front of the building had been overrun, and the defendant had made it inside. Next, she beckoned others to follow her down a hallway, which led to the Old Senate Chamber. 

Before Carpenter arrived in the hallway, MPD officers established a line to prevent rioters from getting closer to the Senate Chamber. As the mob pressed closer to the police, a rioter explained to a reporter that their purpose was to confront Senators directly. “This is a contested vote…everyone said this is where the room is and they’re done speaking…We wanna get in there and say, ‘there’s no way that Joe Biden won.’”

 

During this interview, Carpenter entered the hallway and marched her way to the front of rioters, confronting the police line.

 

From her position at the front of the mob, Carpenter immediately antagonized the officers, taunting and trying to intimidate them by getting in their faces, shaking her tambourine, and yelling slogans such as, “it ain’t stopping,” “this is my house”, and telling the officers that she was a “fucking animal.” Carpenter’s actions encouraged her fellow rioters, who began to chant “Fuck McConnell!” and “This is our house!”

 

One of the officers in this line, MPD Officer Carnell Foster, specifically remembered Carpenter. Officer Foster found Carpenter’s behavior alarming for several reasons. First, Carpenter’s repeated confrontation with police increased the need for the police to take some action which could have made a dangerous situation worse. Second, Carpenter’s repeated chants of being a “fucking animal” raised the prospect of violence because “animals don’t abide laws.”

 

Because of her aggressive behavior, officers had to physically push Carpenter back numerous times as she challenged their defensive line. At one point Carpenter slapped away the arm of an officer, who was trying to push her back, with her tambourine. Other rioters even tried, unsuccessfully, to hold her back and dissuade her from further violence.

 

During the entire time Carpenter spent in the hallway, she ignored every command to leave. Instead, she joined the mob in pushing against officers to break through them and continue towards the Senate Chamber. The force of the mob almost split the police line in two. Officer Foster testified to the danger that the pushing presented. Some officers lost footing, caught up in the forward moving mob, and had to be helped back behind the police line. Others were forced into a nearby stairwell and had to fend off, then expel, the rioters who followed them into the area.

 

Eventually, police drove out the rioters, first from the hallway where Carpenter and others had massed, then from the Rotunda. 

As Carpenter exited the Capitol Building, she raised her tambourine in triumph, celebrating what she believed was her success in stopping Congress from certifying the election result and paving the way for Trump to remain as president. On the steps of the East Rotunda Doors, Carpenter rejoiced, announcing “the breach was made, and it needs to calm down now. Congress needs to come out, they need to certify Trump as president, and this is our house.”

 

Even in the wake of the riot, the former policewoman showed no remorse. She called Biden’s inauguration a “desecration,” worse than the January 6 attack. She created a fund-raising page to pay her legal costs, and then said the attack was a “set up.” She insisted that she had been “wrongfully arrested.” She said she entered the Capitol only after police “waved” her inside. She would also claim that she was denied a chance to testify at her own trial. 

At sentencing, however, Sara asked for mercy. She said she was coming out of COVID isolation. She had been alone for months on end, and joined the crowd “physically and emotionally.” Yeah. Very emotionally. 

In the end, she pays for her belief in Trump’s lies with a sentence of 22 months in prison, 24 additional months on supervised release, and fines and assessments of $2,280. 

Trump “sent us,” believed in a “stolen election.”

 

 

* 

“The best day of his life.”

473. Donald Smith: Smith, a UPS driver by day, was arrested, in part, based on his own claim to have entered Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office during the riot. 

After telling co-workers that he participated in the storming of Congress, and had “a great time,” he called Jan. 6 “the best day of his life.” 

They turned his dumb ass in to police. “He has videos on his phone,” said one tipster, “and was bragging about it at work.” 

In October 2022, charges against Smith were dropped, without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled later.

Trump supporter.

 

*

Kelley must complete a mental health assessment. 

474. KARI DAWN KELLY: Kelley was turned in by a fellow rioter on January 21, during an interview with federal authorities. 

According to investigators, Kelley climbed through a broken window in the Senate wing of the building. Ms. Kelley appears, center of the picture (below), phone upraised.

She faced four charges, related to the Capitol Hill attack, and was indicted along with Zachary Hayes Martin (a.k.a. Zac Martin, and #183 on our list), Stephen Quick and Michael Quick (below). 

(In March 2022, she plead guilty, and was sentenced to three years’ probation, and to pay $500 in restitution. She must also complete a mental health assessment and treatment, if necessary.) 

Trump supporter (based on her three companions in D.C.) 

 

* 

475. MICHAEL QUICK: Michael told authorities he went to D.C. on January 6, in the words of Fox News, “to show support so Congress would investigation [sic] election irregularities.” He said he didn’t realize he and his brother and friends were trespassing because police allowed them to enter. 

(He and his brother, #476, have both plead guilty – see below for sentencing. The only difference: Michael must also complete a mental health assessment and seek treatment if necessary.) 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

476. STEPHEN QUICK: Mr. Quick told investigators he was “ashamed” of having entered the Capitol during the riot. As Fox News reports, he “consented to having the FBI search his camera’s SD card, which contained photos and videos of inside and outside the Capitol that day. Surveillance footage also showed the two brothers in the building, court records say.” 

And can we just say, right here, that if the two brothers get sent to jail, it would be nice if they were allowed to share a cell. 

(The trip to D.C. proves expensive for each of the Quick brothers. Both are sentenced to two years on probation. Both are ordered to perform 60 hours of community service. And each is ordered to cough up $1,500 in fines and restitution. Both brothers are 44, so I am guessing they are twins; but I’m too tired to look that up.) 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.” 

 

* 

477. KENNETH KELLY: Let’s quote from Mr. Kelly’s indictment: 

On January 9, 2021, the FBI National Threat Operations Center received an online tip from - Kenneth KELLY ( , the U.S. Capitol building on Wednesday, January 6, 2021. Specifically, W-1 claimed that KELLY drove to Washington, DC from his home in Florida to attend this riot, “knowing full well they were going to break in.” W-1 further claimed that he/she had text messages that had photos of KELLY and an unknown friend going to the riot and “breaking into the Capitol building via smashing windows.” W-1 stated that KELLY went by the name “Ken” and KELLY was approximately 58 years old. W-1 also provided a phone number for KELLY ending in -1533. 

Evidence against him includes photos, videos and text messages he allegedly sent and received, 

Screen Captures 3 and 4 contain a photo that depicts several individuals climbing what appears to be the outer structures of the U.S. Capitol building, followed by a text message stating: “Patriots stormed the White House [sic], broke in while Senate (with a little s) was in sessiondenating [sic] Arizona. The [sic] were hiding under ther [sic] desks. Forced into recess. Patriots took back our capital today.”

 

(Plead guilty, sentenced to a year on probation, sixty days home detention, and to pay $500 in restitution.) 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

478-479. NOLAN HAROLD KIDD and SAVANNAH DANIELLE MCDONALD: According to extensive photographic and video evidence, Kidd and McDonald were among the first rioters to enter the Capitol. According to their indictment, “Both MCDONALD and KIDD are known to reside in Georgia. As described below, your affiant believes that MCDONALD and KIDD traveled together to Washington, D.C. on January 5, 2021, and are in many photographs together.” 

In fact, Kidd is said to have shared a social media post, boasting, “Just made it home, I have tons of photos and videos to share with you guys.” 

MCDONALD stated that she and KIDD marched to the U.S. Capitol, and when they reached the U.S. Capitol, there were uniformed police officers near the doors telling them to come inside and showing them where to go.

 

On January 15, 2021, FBI agents separately interviewed KIDD in Athens, Georgia. KIDD agreed to speak to the agents. KIDD told the agents that the doors to the U.S. Capitol were wide open.

 

In one video, taken later that day, authorities note that Kidd and McDonald stand for an interview, conducted (apparently) by another rioter: 

At 8:49, the video footage depicted MCDONALD taking a video of herself stating, “I’ve been tear-gassed three times today. Three times.” A man behind the camera responds, “Me too. But we broke—we broke through.” At 9:42, MCDONALD can be heard stating, “We did not break in.”

 

The two defendants proudly stand for a variety of pictures inside the building, with McDonald smiling in one, and saying proudly, “I’m the only girl that made it into the Senate.” 

In a group chat on January 6, Kidd and McDonald talk about the day’s events, with Kidd offering: “Me and Savannah are FUCKING STORMTROOPERS.” 

I think Mr. Kidd might have missed the Nazi implications of that reference. Then again, he’s a Trump supporter. 

Neo-Nazis are not all that rare in the Trump base. 

On January 7, 2021, McDonald told members of the same chat, “My chest hurts . . . [b]ut we did the right thing.” 

The Fox News story about their arrest naturally includes the headline, “DOJ: Georgians arrested for involvement in Capitol riot said police told them to come inside.” Later, the story indicates the pair was “invited” in by officers. 

How sweet. 

(Invited or not, McDonald ends up pleading guilty and is sentenced to spend 21 days behind bars. Nolan Kidd gets 45 days.)

Trump supporter (Kidd).

 

Trump supporter (McDonald).

 

The Fox News story about their arrest naturally includes the headline, “DOJ: Georgians arrested for involvement in Capitol riot said police told them to come inside.” Later, the story indicates the pair was “invited” in by officers. 

How sweet. 

(Invited or not, McDonald ends up pleading guilty and is sentenced to spend 21 days behind bars. Nolan Kidd gets 45 days. 

This time they are definitely invited in by the police.)

 

* 

Noodling and rioting for fun. 

480. Brady Knowlton: Knowlton and Montgomery (below) were indicted together on January 8, and again on April 16, 2021. Knowlton was charged with six crimes as a result of his participation in the riot. 

“Who is Knowlton?” Fox News asked in a story about the Utah man. 

“He’s a businessman, a dad, a political donor and a noodler,” Erin Cox, a Fox reporter, explained. Yes: “noodling,” or trying to catch a fish with your bare hands. In fact, in 2013, Knowlton landed a deal for a short-lived show (three episodes) called “Catfish King” all about noodling adventures. 

Once again, we wonder. Is Knowlton the elusive Antifa type? It turns out he’s just another garden variety Republican: 

Federal election records show he’s donated to Republican candidates for president or the U.S. Senate, including Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Rand Paul and Marco Rubio. His only recorded donation to President Donald Trump was $50 he gave to WinRed, a Republican Party fundraising platform, in August of last year.

 

In fact, during the riot, Knowlton was heard to shout: “We have a right to choose our electors. We’re not going to have communist China choose them for us. We’re not going to have the Democratic Party choose them for us.”  

So, just another election denier to add to our list. 

Trump supporter, he believed the election was stolen.

 

* 

481. PATRICK MONTGOMERY: In happier days, the man from Littleton, Colorado worked as a hunting guide and assured clients that he focused on mountain lion and elk. In the wake of the riot, he found himself facing ten charges, giving him bragging rights compared to Knowlton. Two of those ten involve physical assault on officers of the law. The defendant knocked one officer down  while trying to wrest away his baton, and then kicked him in the chest while he lay on the ground. 

Tipped off by a friend that he had been identified, and might be arrested, he replied that he wasn’t “a scaredy cat.” 

According to the affidavit of his arrest, in an email response, Montgomery wrote: 

Im (sic) so deeply covered by the best Federal Defense lawyers in the country in case you chicken (expletive) cry boys don’t want [sic] it takes to defend our freedom from these corrupt politicians. I didn’t storm the castle violently. My group was let in peacefully by the police we were talking to with respect. We came a[n]d left peacefully before the anarchist and Antifa showed up breaking (expletive) and being hoodlums.

 

As the Denver Post notes, The F.B.I. has publicly stated there was no indication that members of antifa were involved in the Capitol riot.  

In other social media posts, Montgomery has condemned public officials for mandating masks and supported President Trump. On November 9, he posted on Facebook: “70 million pissed off Republicans … no riots, nothing burning, no mostly peaceful protests. Because they are Americans … Guess we’ll go to work today and continue to support the rest of the country.” 

(This blogger is thinking back to 2016, when Trump prevailed in an election that was much closer than this one. And I am remembering all the rioting Democrats…Okay…there weren’t any.) 

Montgomery was initially released from jail, on condition that he surrender any firearms he owned. But on March 31, 2021, the Colorado man participated in a mountain lion hunt and killed one lion. 

It didn’t help his situation when authorities conducted a background check, and found that Montgomery had a 1996 robbery conviction on his record and should have been barred from owning weapons at all. For his fresh sins, he was placed on house arrest, with a GPS tracking device, until trial. In March 2024, he was convicted on a pair of felony charges. Five days before the 2024 election, he was sentenced to spend the next 37 months looking out of a barred window, and then spend three mor years, enjoying visits with a probation officer. 

We also learn that he has violated multiple state hunting laws, while leading others or hunting himself. 

Trump supporter, violent, he believed the election was stolen

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

*

Living with his mother. 

482. JACKSON KOSTOLSKY: Resident of Allentown, Pa., Kostolsky admitted to federal agents that he entered the Capitol Building through an open door, but proceeded only about five feet before being forced out again by police. 

A search warrant, however, revealed Kostolsky deeper inside the building and for some extended period. 

He initially remained free on a personal recognizance bond and was represented by attorney Danielle Courtney Jahn. Court records also indicated that Kostolsky, 31, lived with his mother, which must have been humiliating. 

As a condition of release, Kostlosky [alternate spelling of his name] was released on $250,000 bail. He was required to submit to random drug testing and location monitoring, avoid excessive alcohol or drug use, and obey a 7 p.m.-7 a.m. curfew. 

One lesson for future rioters: If you plan to break the law, don’t wear distinctive kinds of clothing. 

Also, don’t take pictures which might lead federal authorities to one of your friends. (See: Samuel Fontanez Rodriguez, #834 on our list.) 

(Mr. Kostolsky has been sentenced to three years on probation, 30 days of home detention, and ordered to pay $500 restitution.) 

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION NOT KNOWN.)

 

*

War on January 20. 

483. PHILIP EDWARD KRAMER: The California man was turned in by at least one witness whose wife worked with the defendant. From his indictment we learn that Kramer showed up with exactly the kind of equipment you might require if you were intent on rioting. Yet, according to his testimony, he was only carrying a walking cane and a bicycle lock on a rope in case he was attacked. 

On or about January 27, 2021, the FBI received an anonymous tip (“WITNESS 1”) in reference to Philip Kramer. Witness 1 stated that Kramer worked with their spouse at the Jankovich Company in Paramount, California. Witness 1 received third party information that Kramer allegedly participated in the United States Capitol Riot on January 6, 2021. Upon returning to California, Kramer was reported to be agitated and claimed there was going to be war on January 20, 2021, the date of the Presidential Inauguration for Joseph Biden. According to Wintess 1, Kramer told coworkers he had purchased a 2x4 to break into the United States Capitol and that he indeed entered the Capitol on January 6, 2021. There was no contact information provided for follow up with WITNESS 1.

 

On March 18, 2021, your affiant contacted Kramer by telephone at 714-458-0226. During the call, Kramer stated that he was present at the United States Capitol on January 6, 2021. He agreed to meet with FBI agents in person for a voluntary interview. On March 19, 2021, your affiant interviewed Kramer at Starbucks, 8819 Alondra Boulevard, Paramount, California 90723. The interview was conducted outside at a table where Kramer had free and easy access to leave if he desired. The interview was surreptitiously audio recorded. Kramer stated that he traveled to Washington, D.C. to attend former President Trump’s speech on January 6, 2021. He then walked to the United States Capitol and observed a crowd interacting with United States Capitol Police on the west side of the building. Kramer walked up to a door of the building where he had his cellular telephone above his head filming the crowd. Kramer stated that he was pushed into the door by a crowd and made it approximately 20 feet into the building. At some point Kramer was exposed to pepper spray or tear gas. Kramer also stated that he carried a snowboard helmet in his backpack and a walking cane which he intended to use to defend himself if he was involved in an altercation.

 

On March 19, 2021, Kramer contacted your affiant from telephone number 714-458-0226. This telephone call was audio recorded. Kramer stated that he took a video of the crowd while he was going into the Capitol, which he sent to his wife. Kramer added that he carried a Master Lock in his backpack with a climbing rope which he intended to use “in case someone was coming at my throat or something.” Finally, he stated that he took a “do not enter” sign from the Capitol, brought it to California, but threw it away soon after he returned. Kramer stated that he knew he should not have taken the sign as a souvenir and only threw it away because he was scared after he heard things got “crazy.” 

(Sentenced to 30 days in jail, 100 hours of community service and ordered to pay $3,000 in fines and restitution.) 

Trump supporter, violent.

 

* 

“Heads on pikes!” 

484. THOMAS B. ADAMS JR.: On January 7, Insider published an article about the men who stormed the Capitol, written by Abigail Higgins. The opening line: “Thomas Adams was one of the first to set foot in the US Capitol.” 

“It was a really fun time,” Adams told her, speaking very shortly after the building was breached. He was wearing, Higgins noted, “a Trump flag around his neck like a cape” and seemed proud to show her cellphone footage of his escapades to back up what he said. 

She writes: 

Adams, 39, and his friend Roy Franklin, 65, [#588 on our list] said they had traveled from Springfield, Illinois, for the rally the president had held earlier in the day and had been spurred on by Trump’s claim, unsupported by evidence, that he had been cheated out of victory. Trump has refused to acknowledge Biden’s victory and called on his allies to block the certification of the election result. …

 

Adams and Franklin were at the bottom of the steps of the US Capitol building around 2 p.m., pressed close to the police barricade. Hundreds of rioters behind them were pushing forward so hard that Franklin tripped and fell onto a police officer. The officer barely reacted, Franklin said.

 

Once inside, the pair advanced, along with others, to the Senate chamber. Adams saw a man dressed like a Viking, bare-chested and flexing his biceps, announce with a bullhorn, “The government is corrupt and bullshit.” Others cheered him on. Adams said the scene was “hilarious.” 

Franklin seemed discouraged when interviewed, but Adams was more upbeat. “I think everything was great until it went from peaceful to everyone acting like a bunch of 12-year-olds destroying things,” he said. 

(Adams later told F.B.I. agents that he was “spurred on by President Trump’s claim that he had been cheated out of victory.”) 

Higgins captured the mood of the worst people in the mob that day, writing, “With nightfall, intentions turned even darker than the events at the Capitol. ‘Next time we won’t be so peaceful!’ one man shouted. Another peddling Trump T-shirts shouted into a bullhorn, ‘Who else wants to go BLM hunting tonight?’” 

If that kind of racist hate didn’t get your attention, a video that accompanies the article starts with two mid-40’s types in MAGA hats center screen. One says, defiantly, “We can take that place!” and jabs a finger in the direction of the Capitol. 

“And then do what?” the other asks. 

“Heads on pikes!” shouts the first. 

Later, we get a shot of the president, speaking to the crowd earlier that day. “We will never give up, we will never concede,” he promises. “And we’re going to the Capitol.” 

Think about what that meant. 

The video is eye-opening, even for this blogger – who has immersed himself in studying the men and women who ran amok on Jan. 6. One gray-bearded fellow is shown shouting about how the people in the crowd that day paid their taxes, paid the salaries of the people inside the Capitol. And what did they get? “Nothing!” he howled. “They don’t represent us,” he added. “They need to pay the ultimate price for their crimes. An example needs to be made!” 

We will never concede. 

Heads on pikes. 

Pay the ultimate price. 

In the video, another older man calls out to the crowd, “If you’re scared of confrontation, do not move forward. Patriots move forward.” He’s using a bullhorn and adds, “This is our chance to show them how fucking serious we are.” Someone carrying a “Jesus Saves” flag advances past him, which is ironic, for sure. 

One man, who has been sprayed with some kind of chemical appears on screen and compares police defending Congress to the “Gestapo.” 

Again, an irony there. 

Near the end of the film a Trump supporter named Melody Black announces proudly, “This is America, and we’re all here to fight for our freedom. It is not their America,” she insists angrily, “It’s our America.” 

(Actually, it is our America, too, if we supported Biden, because, duh, we live in America. Really, Melody, we do.) 

Trump supporter (Melody, who has not been arrested).

 

When interviewed by F.B.I. agents later, Thomas Adams claimed he did not realize the building had been broken open, until he and his friend began stepping over broken glass. He said he had believed it was to be a “peaceful occupy.” According to the affidavit in his case, “ADAMS said he heard there were possible factions of Antifa that were there that possibly created the problem that started in the Rotunda.” 

He does not name Franklin when he is interviewed by federal authorities – but Franklin is later caught and charged. 

In June 2023, Mr. Adams’s journey through the courts ends. He is sentenced to spend 14 months in prison, 36 more on probation, and cough up $2,000 in restitution for damage done during the riot. 

Trump “sent us.” 

 

* 

485. KEVIN SAM BLAKELY: Like so many other rioters, Blakely was busted in part on the basis of mobile phone data that placed him both inside and outside the Capitol Building on Jan. 6. 

Blakely, 55, owns a vehicle repair company, but faced a battery of charges for participating in the attack. 

His decision to join the riot costs him dearly: a $2,000 fine and five months in prison.

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION UNKNOWN AT THIS TIME.)

 

* 

QAnon wasn’t real! 

486. TAYLOR JAMES JOHNATAKIS: Mr. Johnatakis is a right-winger in good standing. Age 37, from Kingston, Washington, he has had his own podcast for years, sometimes using it to talk about his Mormon faith. 

Nothing wrong with that. 

In the wake of the attack on January 6, however, he said QAnon was a “good source” for information. But the fact Biden’s victory was certified, Johnatakis decided, proved QAnon wasn’t real. 

(This blogger could have told him that two years ago.)

 

In a post-riot podcast, he told listeners, “We overlap with a lot of things Q believers believe in, but there is a difference. Q is not my idol, Q is not my god.” 

He refers to most Americans as “peasants,” and says, we’re all “getting screwed.” 

On Twitter, he calls himself a “Biz Owner, reluctant taxpayer” and works in the construction field “cause it’s honest.” 

On his podcast, the day after his arrest, Johnatakis felt the need to announce that he did not support racism or militia groups – but said nothing about his arrest. “To me the revolution is the Trump revolution, the MAGA revolution, it’s a color-within-the-lines process,” he added, not a destroy-democracy process as it appeared on January 6. “Anything I said that sounds different than that is hyperbole and rhetoric.” 

His lawyer also felt a need to announce that his client was not a member or supporter of any white supremacist or hate group. 

Johnatakis faced eight charges related to his part in the riot, including two counts of engaging “in an act of physical violence.” 

His legal case was not bolstered when a second indictment was filed, linking him with Craig Michael Bingert (#44 on our list) and Isaac Steve Sturgeon (#258). Bingert and Sturgeon were also charged with two acts of physical violence, each. 

As usual, the wheels of justice ground slowly in Johnatakis’s case. He decided to represent himself at trial. That didn’t go well, with the judge calling his defense “gobbledygook.” Nor were jurors impressed – taking but a few hours to find the defendant guilty on all charges, including assault. 

Johnatakis had tried to fight conviction by declaring himself a “sovereign citizen,” beyond the reach of federal law. On April 3, 2024, his fate is sealed. He will spend the next two presidential elections in jail – 87 months in all. 

Right-winger, QAnon supporter (at first), violent.

 

* 

487. DANIEL JOHNSON: Once again, the lesson is clear. If you’re going to participate in a violent attempt to overthrow the government don’t brag on social media. Mr. Johnson is charged after tipsters tell authorities that on Facebook, he wrote, “I was one of the first ones inside the capitol building.” 

And, “lol, Dad (#488 below) and I were one of the first ones inside.” 

Proving, once again, that these rioters are not particularly good at math, Daniel, at one point, looks at the mob surrounding the Capitol and opines, “Couple thousand?? Lol try like 4 million people!!!” 

He was later slapped with a fresh charge: “civil disorder.” That would be a felony. 

He has since been convicted, and sentenced to spend 120 days in jail for his troubles, plus he was ordered to pay a $2,000 fine. In June 2022, he requests that the court delay his prison sentence because he’s a roofer and holds a “vital position” in the roofing company where he works. 

Right-wing person.

 

*

Daryl was there and Daryl was clueless.  

488. DARYL JOHNSON: Evidence also shows that Daniel’s father, Daryl, was among those who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6. 

In response to one critic of the attack on Facebook, Daryl responded, “Brett You need to look more deeply into what actually happened – what the media is saying is completely false It was Antifa causing the damage. I was there! Trump supporters were restraining the Antifa people. Do not believe the reports – it’s a complete BS.” 

Daryl was there and Daryl was clueless. It might be consoling to think that ten thousand people who loved Trump were led on by a few Antifa types to surround and attack Congress. 

The problem is, as of August 28, not a single Antifa-type individual has been arrested for participating in the riot. 

Plus: then-President Trump instructed his followers to march to the Capitol and “fight like hell” and “never concede.” 

To put it simply, Daryl’s family holds a 2-0 lead over Antifa in terms of numbers of persons who joined the assault and suffered arrest. He was recently slapped with a fresh charge: “civil disorder.” That would be a felony. 

This is the twenty-third time a rioter on January 6, or a politician or right-wing media type has made the “Antifa really did it” claim. 

He has since been convicted of one charge, a felony, received 30 days in jail, and was fined $2,000. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution. He’ll be out before his son [#487]. So he can go visit him behind bars and buck up his spirits. 

*

(Daryl now has new problems. In January 2023, he is arrested again. This time he is accused of surreptitiously taking pictures of a woman who was undressing and using a tanning bed at a salon owned by his family. He then allegedly resisted when police tried to seize his phone as part of their investigation.)

Right-wing.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.) 

 

* 

“God has anointed Donald Trump to root out evil.” 

489. Luke Coffee: The 41-year-old actor was identified as one of the rioters by a former college classmate, who happened to be an F.B.I. agent. Coffee is accused of using a crutch to batter police during the attack. 

In a video he posted on social media (since deleted), Coffee essentially confessed to a role in the attack. “Those cops I fought, uh, I was pushing against, I grabbed a crutch,” he explains. “And I went in and pushed against the line. I pushed all against the line and was like trying to drive them back, and God gave me some supernatural energy, and they sprayed in my eyes.” 

As CentralTrack, a Dallas, Texas website, explains in a story about insurrectionists from North Texas, Coffee posted several videos about his experience. 

Regarding the events on the Capitol, Coffee says “I was ready to die last night. We thought we were, we were totally gassed. And I literally thought I was getting gassed to death like I was in Nazi Germany, a Jew getting gassed to death. Okay.”

 

Shortly after that, Coffee describes the violence as an “Antifa false flag attack” and questions whether anyone actually died, a fact that is not disputed.

 

For six weeks afterwards, Coffee went into hiding at a fancy resort (unnamed), whose owner felt it was “ridiculous” to be charging people like Coffee with federal crimes related to the riot. 

During the pandemic, we learn, Coffee fell down the QAnon rabbit hole and decided he had to act. Texas Monthly explains: 

Several months into the lockdown, Coffee found himself isolated, unable to work, and with lots of time to conduct deep dives on the dark web. He encountered QAnon, or as he puts it, “They found me.” Relatives, who have limited contact with Coffee these days, say he quickly became “brainwashed” and began to refuse to engage with those who contradicted his new worldview.

 

In September Coffee began actively posting about QAnon conspiracies and releasing Instagram videos alleging the world was controlled by an all-powerful cabal of politicians, billionaires, propagandists, and Satanists‚ and that God had anointed Donald Trump to root out evil in the body politic. 

 

He also began to believe the conspiracy theory that the election had been stolen. He told a reporter that he went to D.C. on January 6, “to be part of history.” He wanted to do his part to stop the imaginary liberal human traffickers and “bring all of this criminal behavior to light.” 

So: Another poor soul, sucked in by QAnon. 

And Trump. 

(Coffee is yet another one of many rioters and riot-supporting right-wing types to blame the violence on Antifa. His is the twenty-fourth such claim this blogger has logged. And when I find the first Antifa suspect arrested, I will be sure to notify readers. 

Probably never.) 

Trump supporter, QAnon, believed election was stolen.

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.)

 

* 

490. ROBERT FLYNT FAIRCHILD JR.: The 40-year-old Floridian and U.S. Army veteran was arrested on August 27. He originally faced nine charges, including assault on a police officer. The defendant was identified in a video from the attack by his brother-in-law, a deputy in Georgia. This is going to make the family Thanksgiving dinners a little awkward in years to come. 

Fairchild agreed to a plea deal in March 2022 and admitted committing one misdemeanor offense and one felony offense. 

It turns out, the rioter hasn’t always been the best citizen, either, with prior convictions for: 

2006 - Disorderly Conduct

2006 - DUI

2007 - DUI

2009 - DUI

2009 - Marijuana Possession

2015 - Leaving Scene of Crash 

As part of that deal, he was required to pay a $2,000 fine and got socked with six months in jail. 

Ready for violence.

 

* 

491. Uliyahu Hayah: On August 11, 2021, Hayah (also spelled “Haya”), of Silver Springs, Maryland, was indicted on nine counts, including assault on an officer of the law. The initial DOJ report on his arrest makes clear: 

According to court documents, Hayah was captured on video entering the U.S. Capitol through the Senate wing wearing a camouflage backpack, a black head covering and a gas mask while carrying an American flag. As alleged, around 2:25 p.m., Hayah was on the front line of the crowd walking against a line of U.S. Capitol Police Officers in the crypt. Hayah continued walking through the building toward the House of Representatives Chamber, making his way to the vicinity of the Speaker’s Lobby moments after Ashli Babbitt was shot. As depicted in publicly available video, Hayah joined a physical confrontation as law enforcement tried to escort rioters out of the building. As alleged, he put his hands on a Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officer and pushed the officer approximately 10 feet into the crowd. Hayah exited the building at approximately 2:57 p.m.

 

This blogger would admit: Hayah does not look like your typical Trump supporter, nor does he fit the usual profile. If we ever find the proven Antifa, leftist types, we will happily admit it. 

Certainly, these cases are taking time. Hayah has his chances in court, with all the protections listed in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh and Eighth Amendments. He considers his prospects, at last. 

On August 15, 2024, he pleads guilty to assault. 

Violent.

 

*

A “huge White supremacist,” and “a complete wacko.”

492. DANIEL RAY CALDWELL: Caldwell, 49, was taken into custody on February 10, 2021. Among other charges, he faced one count of assaulting a police officer during the riot. The former Marine used a chemical spray in the attack. He showed up for the assault with his old Marine backpack and wearing a “Guns Save Lives” patch on his olive drab sweatshirt. 

In a video cited as evidence in the criminal complaint against him, Caldwell proudly told two women (off camera): 

“Probably 10 minutes after we started storming, a big fight broke out and the guns go off and one girl got hit in the neck,” Caldwell said, recalling how police fired rubber bullets. “Then the fights started and they took their guys and somebody grabbed her and they took off.”

 

“We stayed there and they kept spraying pepper spray,” he continued, referring to officers. “I was like, ‘Dude, do it again, and I’ll spray you back.’ And he did and I sprayed back; got like 15 of them and that’s when they shot me with that big canon [sic] with rubber bullets.”

 

One tipster who knew Caldwell described him as a “huge White supremacist” and “a complete wacko.” 

According to his ex-wife, her ex is not a racist, suffered a traumatic brain injury during his five-and-a-half years of service, and once owned thirteen rifles and four handguns. 

The judge in Caldwell’s case decided anyone happy to spray fifteen officers might be a threat to society and ordered him held until trial. 

On February 1, 2023, the judge in Caldwell’s case sentences him to five years and eight months in prison. 

He also gets hit with a $2,000 fine (not to mention any legal fees he had to pay), and will spend three additional years on probation. 

The judge tells the former Marine, “You should...be thankful to live in [a] democracy.” He admonishes Caldwell, saying that “insurrection has no place under our system of democratic government.” Then he notes: “Abandoning the rule of law in this way, results in systems of government that benefit no one but the rich and powerful. Think of Chavez in Venezuela.” Or, “Pinochet’s Chile.” 

Right-wing individual, violent.

 

* 

Michael and Diane Andrews: A story about Caldwell leads to two other members of the mob that surrounded Congress on that fateful day. Neither has been arrested, but we have yet another claim – by a clueless Trump supporter who was there that day – that Antifa caused all the trouble – even though no members of that left-wing group have been proven to have been there. 

In one picture, posted in front of a broken window, Ms. Andrews adds the caption:  “In DC #StopTheSteaI2020 what an amazing day.” 

She also goes by the name Diane Bobic and has a Twitter account to promote her business as a Dominatrix. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election” (the Dominatrix).

(CLAIMED TO SEE ANTIFA.) 

Trump supporter (Michael).

 

* 

Kevin Whitt: The same story (above) gives us a glimpse into the thinking of another “protester” that day. Whitt is not accused of entering the Capitol, but was fired from his job  with the Republican Party after his picture surfaced, showing him on the steps of the building during the mayhem. 

A believer in QAnon theories – like Pizzagate – Whitt bills himself on social media as a “former trans person” and speaks at various conservative gatherings. He later explained his firing, saying the Texas GOP was “canceling conservatives, obviously.” 

Right-wing type, QAnon believer.

 

* 

Proud Boys and neo-Nazis from the onset. 

Really, the story about Whitt and the Dominatrix, and people like Caldwell who liked making police, painted a compelling picture of people operating on the basis of fantasy beliefs. QAnon. Stolen election. Trump supporters weren’t really Trump supporters, but gremlins of some kind.

____________________ 

Some large percentage was already primed for violence by the time they arrived.

____________________ 

 

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was there on Jan. 6, too, at the “Stop the Steal” rally, listening to Trump. Later, watching the mayhem unfold, he claimed the perpetrators were “not Trump supporters.”

But as this growing list shows: They were. 

And let’s give a final tip of the hat to Ali Alexander, the 35-year-old from Fort Worth, Texas. He was one of the organizers of the “Stop the Steal” extravaganza that proceeded the attack on American democracy. 

At a rally in Phoenix, on December 19, he stirred up the pro-Trump crowd with this story. One of his organizers had explained to Alexander a part of their dilemma, assuming you wanted to overturn an election. “We’re nice patriots, we don’t throw bricks,’” he said. 

“I leaned over and I said, ‘Not yet. Not yet!’ Haven’t you read about a little tar-and-feathering?” Alexander responded. “Those were second-degree burns!” 

Alexander then went on to tell the crowd: 

“We’re going to convince them to not certify the vote on January 6 by marching hundreds of thousands, if not millions of patriots, to sit their butts in D.C. and close that city down, right?” Alexander said. “And if we have to explore options after that…‘yet.’ Yet!”

 

Alexander’s supporters cheered, yelling threats like “noose!” and “nothing’s off the table!”

 

So, the people who showed up on January 6, as asked by people like Alexander and then-President Trump himself – yeah, some large percentage was already primed for violence by the time they arrived. 

Alexander is said to have plead guilty to a pair of felonies a decade ago, one for credit card abuse, another for property damage or theft; when I go looking for documentary evidence I can’t find much. 

On the other hand, I uncover this interesting fact. On January 19, 2017, Gavin McInnes was among attendees at a DeploraBall event, as he and other right-wing types celebrated early the rise of their hero, Donald J. Trump. 

McInnes was there for the Big Bang, politically speaking, and his claim to fame now is that he organized the Proud Boys, who played such a critical role in the Capitol Hill attack. Another invitee, disinvited at the last minute, was Richard Spencer, he of neo-Nazi fame. But Spencer did feel safe enough with the crowd celebrating the rise of Trump to crash an after-party event. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election” (Paxton). 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election,” right-winger,

believed in violence (Alexander). 

Trump supporter, right winger, believed in violence (McInnes). 

Trump supporter, right-winger (Spencer).

 

* 

493. NICHOLAS LANGUERAND: A tip leads to Languerand’s arrest, after his picture and other information placed him in the thick of the riot. “Remember this day forever,” the defendant posts as a caption to one photo on Instagram. 

At one point, you could say, the suspect reveals clearly who he is. In response to online criticism, he says: 

My name is Nicholas Languerand and I am a proud Patriot. Where We Go One, We Go All. Only true fascists censor and slander the opposition. You are doing precisely what SS soldiers and sympathizers would’ve done to Jews in 1940s Germany. God is watching.

 

According to the indictment in his case, the defendant was seen at the Lower West Terrace Entrance to the Capitol Building throwing objects at the police, including “a large orange traffic barrier, a cannister of pepper spray, and a stick-like object.” He also acquires a police shield at one point and tries to batter his way through police lines, as he tries to force a way inside the Capitol. 

Mr. Languerand pays a steep price for his riotous actions – including 44 months in prison and a fine of $2,000. 

Previously, the defendant had told a reporter he regretted the violence that occurred on January 6, but still saw himself as “a patriot,” and  still believed he was acting in the best interests of the country. 

Trump supporter, QAnon believer, violent.

 

* 

494. CHRISTIAN CORTEZ: The indictment in Cortez’s case, began with a tip from a former high school classmate. On January 7, that classmate provided authorities with a YouTube video link which put the alleged rioter at the forefront of efforts to break through police lines. “At about 4 minutes and 50 seconds into the video CORTEZ can be heard off-screen, yelling, ‘Fuck you! Oath breakers! Oath breakers! You’re a fuckin’ oath breaker!” 

After officers spray him in the face, Cortez repeatedly shouts in rage, “Do it some fuckin’ more!” 

(See: Larocca, Benjamin, below.) 

Cortez has his day in court, and gets slammed by the judge: four months behind bars, sixty hours of community service, three years on probation, and a $2,000 fine, 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

495. BENJAMIN LAROCCA: A second tipster, also a high school classmate of Cortez and Larocca, notifies federal law enforcement that the two men were in the middle of the attack on Capitol Hill. 

Interviewed by F.B.I. agents, Larocca voluntarily admitted he and Cortez  had driven from Texas to Virginia in a rental car on Jan. 4, and stayed in a hotel. On the morning of Jan. 6 they drove to D.C., where Larocca said they hoped to be part of a “march.” He further claimed that once inside the Capitol he was merely “chilling” and shouting, “Our house!” 

Cortez (above) told the F.B.I. he and Larocca came to D.C. to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally. Initially, he told agents that “he never pushed past any officers and that he tried to stop others from assaulting officers or vandalizing the Capitol.” Shown videos of his actions, he had to admit, okay, that was him. 

Larocca likely faces misdemeanor charges. Cortez is likely to be charged with felony offenses. 

(Larocca plead guilty, 4/8/22. Sentenced to 60 days in jail, must pay $2,500 in fines and restitution.)

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

496. Shawn Daniel Mahoney: Mr. Mahoney showed up for the riot wearing a Trump- Pence sweatshirt, a rather unfortunate sartorial choice, considering the fury directed that day at the VP. Mahoney also stood out in the mob, with his short, cropped hair, and his absence of any gas mask or goggles. 

A former manager at a place where Mr. Mahoney was employed helped identify him, and the New Hampshire man has joined the ever-growing list of the indicted. (We had to plug him in here, to replace a name we had used twice. 

Mahoney is a low-level offender, and was not finally arrested until November 7, 2023, exactly 1,099 days after the 2020 presidential election. In all those days, in those 26,376 hours, not one judge in any court in the land has found significant voter fraud occurred, to keep Donald J. Trump out of the White House. 

Dude lost by 7,000,000 votes.

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION NOT DEFINITIVE.)

 

 

* 

497. ERIC CHASE TORRENS: Torrens is indicted after video posted by Matthew Bledsoe (#130 on our list) surfaces, highlighting their success in breaking into the Capitol. Torrens is seen wearing a “fleece-lined white and gray hat.” 

“We’re going in,” he shouts. 

Another Bledsoe video shows a group of men marching through the halls of Congress, the crowd shouting, “Stop the steal! Stop the steal!” 

Bledsoe’s video also leads to the indictment of Blake Austin Reed (#80 on our list), Jack Jesse Griffith (#109) and Bledsoe himself. 

On August 19, Torrens pleads guilty to a single count related to his participation in the riot. He ends up serving 90 days on home confinement and will spend three years on probation. He agrees to cooperate with law enforcement authorities and share any and all relevant social media and phone evidence. 

(POLITICAL AFFILIATION: YOU CAN PROBABLY GUESS.)

 

* 

498. JOSEPH ELLIOT ZLAB: When contacted by federal agents, after a tip that Zlab had been inside the Capitol on Jan. 6, the suspect first claimed he had only circled the building once or twice. “When asked if he went in the Capitol building, ZLAB stated that he thought he needed an attorney because he did not want to say anything incriminating.”

A search of his phone later turned up multiple pictures taken on January 6, inside the Capitol Building. 

Zlab, 51, who runs JMZ Contractors, an Everest, Washington construction firm, shows up in a MAGA hat, a “Don’t Tread on Me” flag draped over his shoulder, on the day democracy almost died. 

In September 2021, he agreed to a plea deal. In April 2022, he was sentenced to perform 200 hours of community service, cough up $5,500 in fines and restitution, and spend the next three years on probation. He’ll still be on probation when the next presidential election is held. 

(LIKELY CONSERVATIVE; NOT DEFINITIVE.)

 

* 

“Stealing elections is treason!” 

499. JAMES LITTLE: You don’t have to read very far in the indictment against Little to see where he stands. 

On January 6, at 3:20 p.m., he texts a person he knows: “We just took over the Capitol!” 

That individual responds – in all caps – “IF YOU DON’T CONDEMN THIS DON’T EVER BOTHER SPEAKING TO ME AGAIN! HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE PEOPLE. THIS IS A COUP! YOU OBVIOUSLY HATE AMERICA!!!” 

At 3:36 Little responds: “We are stopping treason! Stealing elections is treason! We’re not going to take it anymore!” 

Little adds that the recipient of his texts will “thank me for saving your freedom” someday. 

Sadly, I suppose, for Mr. Little, he is easily identifiable in photos and video from the day of the attack, on the basis of his very bald noggin. 

Even more sadly, he gets convicted, at age 64, and sentenced to spend 120 days in jail, plus 36 months on probation. 

A snipped of good news, however, for Little, comes later. It turns out that for a “petty offense,” time in jail and time on probation cannot be combined. Either his time in jail will be wiped out, or his probation period will be negated. 

Yay, for defendants’ rights! 

Boo for the rioting fools, Little included, for sure.

 

FUN FACT: On technical grounds Little later appeals his punishment, but having already served his sixty days. His courtroom antics so alarm the judge, who sees signs of danger again in 2024, that he gives Little another ninety days in the can. 

Trump supporter, believed in a “stolen election.”

 

* 

500. TERRY LINDSEY: Lindsey was indicted along with Glen Wes Lee Croy (#211 on the list). 

Evidence from social media posts soon put Lindsey squarely inside the Capitol on January 6. 

Review of the Lindsey Profile revealed photographs, posts, and commentary evidencing Lindsey’s participation in the January 6, 2021 breach. For example, on January 4, 2021, the following post appeared on the Lindsey Profile: “Going to D.C. anyone I know going give me a shout out.” Further posts to the Lindsey Profile from January 5, 2021, subsequently informed others of Lindsey’s apparent location along the way, stating, “Just hit West Virginia”; “Just got to Pennsylvania”; and “In Maryland”.

 

Even better – for prosecutors – Lindsey posted on social media at 3:38 p.m. on that grim day: “Inside the Capitol.” 

Mr. Lindsey went on to claim, “Notice how peaceful we were inside the Capitol. Don’t believe the news we didn’t start shit.” 

(Plead guilty 4/5/22. Sentenced to five months’ incarceration, three years’ probation, community service and restitution.) 

Trump supporter.

 

* 

“They need to hang from these mother****ers.” 

501. DAVID NICHOLAS DEMPSEY: You can get the flavor of who Dempsey is from a video he posted on January 6. Standing in front of a gallows erected on Capitol grounds, a Trump flag in one hand, he howls, “Them worthless ****in’ ****holes like Jerry Nadler, ****in’ Pelosi… they don’t need a jail cell. They need to hang from these mother****ers [pointing to gallows]…They need to get the point across that the time for peace is over.” 

As WUSA9 adds, 

In the video, Dempsey can be seen using pepper spray, crutches, a metal pole and a baton or club-like object to assault police attempting to hold rioters back. Charging documents also include pictures of Dempsey wearing a yellow-and-black bracelet and posing with other members of the Proud Boys in marked attire.

 

Dempsey may not be a member of the Proud Boys, but appears in at least one photo flashing the “White Power” hand signal along with two other like-minded “gentlemen” and two unidentified “ladies.” 

In fact, he was later accused of using pepper spray on police at least three times, of climbing over other rioters, as if they were “human scaffolding,” and striking at the men and women in blue with his feet, fists, and anything else he could use, including broken pieces of furniture. At least one officer was hit so hard with a crutch, wielded by Dempsey, that he collapsed in a daze, with a gash in his head. 

In August 2024, he learns his fate. A federal judge, first appointed to the bench by Ronald Reagan sentences him to twenty years in prison. The judge also condemns politicians who have excused the behavior of the attackers on Jan. 6 (for example, Fat Donald of Mar-a-Lago. Such “meritless justifications of criminal activity,” he warns, “could presage further danger to our country.”

 

FUN FACT: Dempsey was arrested in 2019, after he used bear spray against anti-Trump protesters in Santa Monica, California – when he was already on parole. 

Trump supporter, right-wing, violent.

Trump supporter, right-wing, violent.

 

* 

“We are all ready and willing to fight.” 

502. JEFFREY SCOTT BROWN: Brown faced five charges, including one for inflicting injury on a law enforcement officer. (See also Peter Schwartz #192, Shelly Stallings #613, and Markus Maly #614, all indicted together.) 

Evidence against him included his participation in an encrypted group chat, the “about” description reading: “This group will serve as the Comms for able bodied individuals that are going to DC on Jan 6. Many of us have not met before and we are all ready and willing to fight. We will come together for this moment that we are called upon.” The group also called itself “The California Patriots – DC Brigade.” 

Among other offenses, Brown was accused of deploying pepper spray against police defending the Capitol. According to the F.B.I. agent who filed the indictment against him, 

At approximately 3:11 p.m., BROWN can be seen pointing the can towards the police defensive line and deploying spray for several seconds in the direction of the police. Based on my training and experience, I assess this spray was pepper spray or a similar chemical spray.

 

On August 26, the DOJ filed an emergency motion to block a judge’s decision to release Brown from jail pending trial. 

Brown is seen above, circled in red, as rioters try to get close to police to do a little hugging and kissing, as former-President Trump put it. 

In December 2022, Brown is found guilty of one felony and one lesser charge by a judge. Sentencing to follow. 

“Until January 6,” the judge says at Brown’s sentencing in April 2023, “we accepted elections” in America. 

Trump would not. 

Brown bought into Trump’s lies. Brown is now going to jail for 54 months. He’ll be in the slammer when we vote again in 2024. 

Right wing, violent.

 

* 

503. JANET WEST BUHLER: According to Buhler’s indictment, a federal agent was reviewing footage from the riot, related to Michael Lee Hardin (#357 on our list), when he noticed a woman later identified as Ms. Buhler. 

Hardin and Buhler appeared to be together as they walked the halls of Congress and tried to disrupt the final electoral vote. The agent contacted a witness in Hardin’s case and learned that Buhler was his stepmother-in-law, who had traveled with him, from Utah to D.C. 

Buhler was charged with five crimes, plead guilty to one in June 2022, and received 30 days in jail to consider what a dope she had been.

Trump supporter.

 

*

Armed insurrection against the Oregon government. 

504. MARC ANTHONY BRU: For a moment, when I study the indictment against Bru, I think, “I have done it. I have found the Yeti. I have snapped a picture of Bigfoot at the riot, so to speak. 

I see the words: “Pacific Northwest Resisters,” and mention of their Twitter account. The F.B.I. agent notes that PNR is “associated with the anti-fascist movement.” For a moment I believe Bru belongs. Then reality intrudes. 

PNR has helped identify Bru, who turns out to be a very proud member, of course, of the Proud Boys. 

If we go looking, we find social media posts of Bru pointing guns in his pictures at anyone who accesses his accounts. He identifies himself in one post as a Proud Boy. In another, as he marches on the Capitol on January 6, he flashes the “White Power” salute. In still another, he appears to be part of a large group following Ethan Nordean (#172 on our list), the leader of the Boys. 

And that’s the type who showed up on January 6. 

Speaking of “showing up,” on June 16, 2023, Mr. Bru does not show up for his court appointment. 

He fails to show again on June 27, and, in fact, made it clear he was not coming to court again – unless the F.B.I. came and got him. In response to his last summons to appear, he responded: 

I certified mailed my motion to the prosecutor, I’m done entertaining their bullshit. if they want me they will come get me. I’m drawing a fucking line in the sand. I can’t believe Americans are willingly paying money to see their fucking so-called patriot heroes go to the totalitarian clink. They torture, they strip rights, they murder and everyone is ok with letting j6ers go through the motions to be unappreciated martyrs? Americans can go fuck themselves I’ve lost my life, my family, my prosperity for the cause, yet still no fucking backbone from Americans. I’m not a debt slave, I will not submit to a totalitarian belligerent de facto regime. Thanks for the info. You should make sure my reply makes it print … I’d rather die free than to submit fuckin tyrants.

 

Mr. Bru then disappeared – only to be picked up in Montana on July 28, 2023. Ironically, he was caught after a drunk driver ran into his car, and Bru had to help officers file a report at the scene. A warrant for his arrest popped up, and Mr. Bru got cuffed. 

 After that it went downhill quickly. Mr. Bru was convicted on seven charges, including  a pair of felonies. 

A Department of Justice memo provides insight into what kind of person Mr. Bru is and what were his post-riot plans. He was one of the first rioters to join the fight: 

When police officers tried to use bicycle rack barricades to force the rioters backward, Bru charged the barricades, grabbed one, and used his entire body weight to prevent the police from moving it forward. An officer tried to spray Bru with a chemical irritant to get him to let go, but Bru ducked and avoided it, leading another officer to force Bru to retreat. Later, despite the blaring alarm, Bru entered the Capitol through an emergency exit and made his way to the recently evacuated Senate chamber, where he took celebratory pictures in the gallery. Approximately seven weeks later, Bru sent an encrypted message to an aspiring “Proud Boy” in which Bru detailed his plans to conduct an armed insurrection against the Oregon state government, modeled on the January 6 Capitol riot.

 

Don’t expect to see Bru getting out of jail anytime soon – unless Donald Trump gets a second term in the White House and pardons all his pals. 

As for Bru, in court, it was clear he hadn’t “mellowed.” He told the judge he was a “sovereign citizen” and “outside” the court’s jurisdiction. Bru also said the U.S. government was a “corporation,” not a legitimate government. Later, he warned the judge, “You have committed war crimes against me.” 

None of that rubbish helped his defense and he was quickly convicted in a bench trial. 

 

FUN FASCIST FACT: If you love Trump, and people like Bru, who want to kill other Americans when votes don’t go their way, you’ll be thrilled to know. In December 2023, Trump says the January 6 prisoners are “hostages,” kind of like the prisoners Hamas is holding in Gaza. 

In a jailhouse call, Bru naturally agrees, and says “they” (prosecutors, judges, jurors, Biden voters) have “declared war on the public.” The “people” he says have to “claw back power.” 

Which sounds ominous, I think. 

In fact, Mr. Bru did have plans, after January 6. 

Several weeks after the riot, Bru exchanged text messages with a friend about buying gas masks in bulk. He also texted a Proud Boys recruit and indicated that he wanted to “repeat the violence and lawlessness of January 6 in Portland in order to take over the local government,” prosecutors said.

 

“In fact, those text messages indicate that Bru’s chief takeaway from January 6 is that it was not violent enough or not sufficiently dedicated to overthrowing the government,” prosecutors wrote. “In other words, in the aftermath of January 6, Bru was plotting an armed insurrection, not feeling remorseful.”

 

In other words, just the kind of guy Trump would like on his side if he loses the election in 2024.

 

UPDATE: Bru is finally convicted, on January 24, 2024, and learns that he will miss his chance to vote in the 2024 presidential election, and again in 2028. He is sentenced to six years behind bars. 

Trump supporter, right-wing individual, violent.

 

***** 

Who did these people want to kill?

AS OF NOVEMBER 17, 2023, I’m 1,250 + rioters into this massive project, still trying to come to some conclusions about who these people were (Trump supporters), and what motivated them to attack (Trump lies). Some seem to be dupes, relatively harmless folk, harmed in their own way, after falling into Trump’s web of untruths. 

Worst of all, we have the extreme right-wing types, like Marc Anthony Bru. Talk of civil war being necessary, as January 6 being the day for a new revolution, was rife, but such talk, including from GOP lawmakers like Rep. Lauren Boebert, begged the central question.  

In a civil war, or revolution, who did these people want to kill? 

Other Americans. It’s that simple.

 

When I updated this post on June 30, 2023, Bru sounded like he still wanted to kill federal officers who came to his house. 

Now, on November 17, 2023, here’s what we know.  Close to 900 rioters have pled guilty or been convicted in the courts. At least 79 will spend more time in jail than Donald spent in the White House during his first term. (And pray he doesn’t get a second.) By this point, 1,109 days have passed since the 2020 election. Trump and his allies have never proven in a single court that significant voter fraud occurred. No recount, and there have been many, has ever shown significant voter fraud was an issue in the last presidential election. 

Seven of the rioters are now dead, including one killed during the attack, and three by suicide since being charged. (Another Trump supporter, who was never charged) was trampled to death by the mob.) Five police officers who helped thwart that attack are also dead, four by suicide. 

Trump remains at large.