Those who have who gambled — and lost — on a trial have received significantly longer prison sentences than those who took responsibility for joining the Jan. 6, 2021 attack, an Associated Press review of court records shows.

The AP’s analysis of Capitol riot sentencing data reinforces a firmly established tenet of the U.S. criminal justice system: Pleading guilty and cooperating with authorities carries a substantial benefit when it comes time for sentencing.

″On one hand, the Constitution guarantees the accused a right to a jury trial. It’s a fundamental constitutional right. But the reality is that if you exercise that right … you’re likely to be punished more severely than you would have been had you pled guilty to the offense,” said Jimmy Gurulé, a University of Notre Dame law professor and former federal prosecutor.

More than 700 defendants have pleaded guilty to federal charges related to the Jan. 6 attack, while over 150 others have opted for a trial decided by a judge or jury in Washington, D.C. It’s no surprise most cases have ended in a plea deal — many rioters were captured on video inside the Capitol and later gloated about their actions on social media, making it difficult for their lawyers to mount much of a defense.

The average prison sentence for a Jan. 6 defendant who was convicted of a felony after a contested trial is roughly two years longer than those who pleaded guilty to a felony, according to the AP’s review of more than 1,200 cases. The data also show that rioters who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors were far less likely to get jail time than those who contested their misdemeanor charges at a trial.

Lawyers for some Jan. 6 defendants who went to trial have complained about what has long been described as a “trial tax”— a longer sentence imposed on those who refused to accept plea deals. A defense lawyer made that argument last year after a landmark trial for former leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group convicted of seditious conspiracy.

A judge sentenced four ex-Proud Boys leaders to prison terms ranging from 15 to 22 years. Prosecutors had recommended prison terms ranging from 27 to 33 years for a plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden.

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After the sentencings, defense attorney Norm Pattis filed plea offers that prosecutors made before the Proud Boys went to trial. Prosecutors’ sentencing recommendations after the trial were three or four times higher than what they had estimated the defendants would face if they had pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy before the trial.

Prosecutors persuaded the judge to apply a “terrorism enhancement” that significantly increased the range of prison terms recommended under sentencing guidelines. Pattis argued that the government’s recommendations amounted to a trial tax that violated the Sixth Amendment.

“In effect, the defendants were punished because they demanded their right to trial,” he wrote.

In the federal court system overall, nearly 98 percent of convictions in the year that ended Sept. 30 were the result of a guilty plea, according to data collected by the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts. Few criminal cases make it to a jury because defendants have a powerful incentive to plead guilty and spare the government from spending time and limited resources on a trial.

But advocates for reform have long complained that plea bargaining is unfairly coercive and can even push people who are innocent to take a deal out of fear of a lengthy prison sentence if they take their chances at trial.

As of Jan. 1, at least 157 defendants have been sentenced after pleading guilty to felony charges for serious crimes related to the Capitol attack. They received an average prison sentence of approximately two years and five months, according to the AP’s data.

At least 68 riot defendants have been convicted of a felony after trials with contested facts. They have been sentenced to an average of approximately four years and three months behind bars.

The AP’s comparison excludes 10 sentences for seditious conspiracy convictions because nobody who pleaded guilty to the same charge has been sentenced yet. The analysis also excludes convictions from over a dozen “stipulated bench trials,” in which the judge decided the cases based on facts that both sides agreed to before the trial started.

The gap is similarly wide for a subset of felony cases in which a Capitol rioter was convicted of assault. The average prison sentence for 83 rioters who pleaded guilty to an assault charge was approximately three years and five months. The average prison sentence for 28 rioters convicted of an assault charge at trial was roughly six years and one month.

The trend also applies to misdemeanor cases against Capitol rioters who didn’t engage in violent or destructive behavior. Of 467 riot defendants who pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor, more than half avoided jail time. Meanwhile, judges handed down terms of imprisonment to 22 of 23 defendants who went to trial and were convicted only of misdemeanors.

After the first trial for a Jan. 6 case, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich sentenced a Texas man to more than seven years in prison after a jury convicted him of storming the Capitol with a holstered handgun, helmet and body armor. Prosecutors had recommended a 15-year prison sentence for Guy Reffitt, but before the trial, prosecutors presented him with a possible plea deal that would have recommended less than five years in prison.

Reffitt’s attorney, F. Clinton Broden, said in a court filing that the government’s 15-year recommendation “makes a mockery of the criminal justice system.”

“One of the things when we talk about our democracy and our Constitution is this idea that you have a right to go to trial. You’re not sentenced to three times as high of a sentence if you go to trial,” Broden said during the hearing, according to a transcript.

Justice Department prosecutor Jeffrey Nestler told the judge that the government wasn’t seeking “a trial penalty in any stretch of the imagination,” adding, “It’s because of the defendant’s conduct here.”

The judge said Reffitt’s sentencing guidelines range would have been roughly two years lower if he had accepted responsibility early and pleaded guilty.

“There’s a cost for going to trial, and the guidelines make pretty clear what that cost is,” Friedrich said.

The risks of going to trial also are illustrated by the case against Dr. Simone Gold, a leading figure in the anti-vaccine movement. Gold entered the Capitol with John Strand, a boyfriend who worked for a group that Gold founded.

Both were charged with the same crimes. Gold pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor. Strand went to trial and was convicted of five charges, including a felony obstruction charge.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced Gold to two months in prison and sentenced Strand to two years and eight months behind bars. Prosecutors had sought a prison sentence of six years and six months in prison for Strand.

Strand’s lawyer, Stephen Brennwald, questioned why the government’s sentencing recommendation for Strand was nearly 40 times longer than Gold’s prison sentence. Strand was following Gold’s lead on Jan. 6, the attorney argued.

“It would stand to reason that Mr. Strand should receive a lesser sentence. After all, they both engaged in exactly the same conduct that day, though Dr. Gold was the reason that both of them went into the Capitol,” Brennwald wrote in court papers.

The judge told Strand that he wasn’t getting a trial penalty for exercising his constitutional rights. Unlike Gold, Strand didn’t get credit for accepting responsibility for his conduct on Jan. 6.

“And to the contrary, you’ve not accepted responsibility in a pretty remarkable way. You have professed not just that the government didn’t prove its case, but you have professed your innocence numerous times,” Cooper said, according to a transcript.

___

Associated Press writer Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston contributed to this report.

In the aftermath of the 2020 election, they write, only one U.S. political party “violated all three.”

Saturday marks the third anniversary of the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, and Donald Trump, the former president, is far-and-away the leading Republican candidate in 2024. He still refuses to acknowledge his earlier loss to President Joe Biden. Far from rejecting the rioters, he has suggested he would pardon some of those who have been convicted of violent crimes. Rather than distance himself from extremists, he welcomes them at his rallies and calls them patriots.

And Trump is now backed by many of the Republican leaders who fled for their lives and hid from the rioters, even some who had condemned Trump. Several top GOP leaders have endorsed his candidacy.

The support for Trump starkly highlights the divisions in the aftermath of the deadly storming of the Capitol and frames the question about whose definition of governance will prevail — or if democracy will prevail at all.

“If our political leaders do not stand up in defense of democracy, our democracy won’t be defended,” said Levitsky, one of the Harvard professors whose new book is “Tyranny of the Minority.”

“There’s no country in the world, no country on Earth in history, where the politicians abdicated democracy but the institutions held,” he told The Associated Press. “People have to defend democracy.”

The third anniversary of the Jan. 6 attack comes during the most convulsive period in American politics in at least a generation, with Congress barely able to keep up with the basics of governing, and the start of the presidential nominating contests just over a week away.

Trump’s persistent false claims that the election of 2020 was stolen — which has been rejected in at least 60 court cases, every state election certification and by the former president’s one-time attorney general — continue to animate the presidential race as he eyes a rematch with Biden.

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Instead, Trump now faces more than 90 criminal charges in federal and state courts, including the federal indictment brought by special counsel Jack Smith that accused Trump of conspiring to defraud the U.S. over the election.

Biden, speaking Friday near Pennsylvania’s Valley Forge, commemorated Jan. 6, saying on that day “we nearly lost America — lost it all.”

While the Congress returned that night to certify the election results and show the world democracy was still standing, Biden said Trump is now trying to revise the narrative of what happened that day — calling the rioters “patriots” and promising to pardon them. And he said some Republicans in Congress were complicit.

“When the attack on Jan. 6 happened there was no doubt about the truth,” Biden said. “Now these MAGA voices — who know the truth about Trump and Jan. 6 — have abandoned the truth and abandoned the democracy.”

At a quieter Capitol, without much ceremony planned for Saturday, it will be the last time the anniversary will pass before Congress is called upon again, on Jan. 6, 2025, to certify the results of the presidential election — democracy once more put to the test.

Rep. Jamie Raskin, the Maryland Democrat who led Trump’s impeachment over the insurrection, said Biden’s 306-232 electoral victory in 2020 remains “the hard, inescapable, irradicable fact that Donald Trump and his followers have not been able to accept — to this day.”

Raskin envisions a time when there will be a Capitol exhibit, and tours for visitors, to commemorate what happened Jan. 6, 2021. Five people died during the riot and the immediate aftermath, including Trump supporter Ashli Babbitt, who was shot and killed by police.

All told,140 police officers were injured in the Capitol siege, including U.S. Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick who died later. Several others died later by suicide.

One officer, Harry Dunn, has announced he is running for Congress to “ensure it never happens again.”

Trump’s decision to reject the results of the 2020 election was the only time Americans have not witnessed the peaceful transfer of presidential power, a hallmark of U.S. democracy.

A giant portrait of George Washington resigning his military commission hangs in the U.S. Capitol, a symbol of the voluntary relinquishing of power — a move that was considered breathtaking at the time. He later was elected the first U.S. president.

Trump opened his first rally of his 2024 presidential campaign with a popular recording of the J6 Prison Choir — riot defendants singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” recorded over a phone line from jail, interspersed with Trump reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

More than 1,200 people have been charged in the riot, with nearly 900 convicted, including leaders of the extremist groups the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers who are serving lengthy terms for seditious conspiracy.

Trump has called Jan. 6 defendants “hostages” and said there was so much love at the “Stop the Steal” rally he held near the White House that day before he encouraged the mob to march down Pennsylvania Avenue, assuring he would be with them at the Capitol, though he never did join.

Allies of Trump scoff at the narrative of Jan. 6 that has emerged. Mike Davis, a Trump ally sometimes mentioned as a future attorney general, has mocked the Democrats and others for turning Jan. 6 into a “religious holiday.”

Republican Kevin McCarthy, who went on to become House speaker, had called Jan. 6 the “saddest day” he ever had in Congress. But when he retired last month he endorsed Trump for president and said he would consider joining his cabinet.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell has said he would back whomever becomes the Republican Party nominee, despite a scathing speech at the time in which he called Trump’s actions “disgraceful” and said the rioters “had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth because he was angry he lost an election.”

Asked about Trump’s second-term agenda, GOP lawmakers brushed off his admission that he would be a dictator on “day one.”

“He’s joking,” said Trump ally Byron Donalds, R-Fla.

“Just bravado,” said Rep. Tim Burchett, R-Tenn. “There’s still checks and balances.”

Levitsky said when he and his colleague wrote their earlier book, they believed that the Republicans in Congress would be a “bulwark against Trump.”

But with so many of the Trump detractors having retired or been voted out of office, “We were much less pessimistic than we are today.”

They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.

Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.

“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.

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Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.

The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack.

“The Justice Department will hold all Jan. 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under the law, whether they were present that day or otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. He said the cases filed by Graves and the special counsel in Trump’s federal case, Jack Smith, show the department is “abiding by the long-standing norms to ensure independence and integrity or our investigations.”

A look at where the cases against the Jan. 6 defendants stand:

By the numbers

More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.

Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.

About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody in June.

All eyes on the Supreme Court

Defense attorneys and prosecutors are closely watching a case that will soon be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that could impact hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants. The justices agreed last month to hear one rioter’s challenge to prosecutors’ use of the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which refers to the disruption of Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

More than 300 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with the obstruction offense, and so has Trump in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Lawyers representing rioters have argued the charge was inappropriately brought against Jan. 6 defendants.

The justices will hear arguments in March or April, with a decision expected by early summer. But their review of the obstruction charge is already having some impact on the Jan. 6 prosecutions. At least two defendants have convinced judges to delay their sentencings until after the Supreme Court rules on the matter.

Rioters on the lam

Dozens of people believed to have assaulted law enforcement during the riot have yet to be identified by authorities, according to Graves. And the statute of limitations for the crimes is five years, which means they would have to be charged by Jan. 6, 2026, he said.

Several defendants have also fled after being charged, including a Proud Boys member from Florida who disappeared while he was on house arrest after he was convicted of using pepper spray gel on police officers. Christopher Worrell, who spent weeks on the lam, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison.

The FBI is still searching for some defendants who have been on the run for months, including a brother-sister pair from Florida. Olivia Pollock disappeared shortly before her trial was supposed to begin in March. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, is also missing. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who is accused of thrusting a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pulling an officer down steps and punching others.

What about the pipe bomber?

Another defendant, Evan Neumann, fled the U.S. two months after his December 2021 indictment and is believed to be living in Belarus.

One of the biggest remaining mysteries surrounding the riot is the identity of the person who placed two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the day before the Capitol attack. Last year, authorities increased the reward to up to $500,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. It remains unclear whether there was a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot.

Investigators have spent thousands of hours over the last three years doing interviews and combing through evidence and tips from the public, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

“We urge anyone who may have previously hesitated to come forward or who may not have realized they had important information to contact us and share anything relevant,” he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but officers didn’t find them until the next day. Authorities were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. Shortly after, a call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.

They are among the hundreds of people who have been convicted in the massive prosecution of the Jan 6, 2021, riot in the three years since the stunned nation watched the U.S. Capitol attack unfold on live TV.

Washington’s federal courthouse remains flooded with trials, guilty plea hearings and sentencings stemming from what has become the largest criminal investigation in American history. And the hunt for suspects is far from over.

“We cannot replace votes and deliberation with violence and intimidation,” Matthew Graves, the U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, told reporters on Thursday.

Authorities are still working to identify more than 80 people wanted for acts of violence at the Capitol and to find out who placed pipe bombs outside the Republican and Democratic national committees’ offices the day before the Capitol attack. And they continue to regularly make new arrests, even as some Jan. 6 defendants are being released from prison after completing their sentences.

The cases are playing out at the same courthouse where Donald Trump is scheduled to stand trial in March in the case accusing the former president of conspiring to overturn his 2020 election loss in the run-up to the Capitol attack.

“The Justice Department will hold all Jan. 6 perpetrators at any level accountable under the law, whether they were present that day or otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said Friday. He said the cases filed by Graves and the special counsel in Trump’s federal case, Jack Smith, show the department is “abiding by the long-standing norms to ensure independence and integrity or our investigations.”

A look at where the cases against the Jan. 6 defendants stand:

More than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the riot, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy. Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.

Only two defendants have been acquitted of all charges, and those were trials decided by a judge rather than a jury.

About 750 people have been sentenced, with almost two-thirds receiving some time behind bars. Prison sentences have ranged from a few days of intermittent confinement to 22 years in prison. The longest sentence was handed down to Enrique Tarrio, the former Proud Boys national chairman who was convicted of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors described as a plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump, a Republican, to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Many rioters are already out of prison after completing their sentences, including some defendants who engaged in violence. Scott Fairlamb — a New Jersey man who punched a police officer during the riot and was the first Jan. 6 defendant to be sentenced for assaulting law enforcement — was released from Bureau of Prisons’ custody in June.

Defense attorneys and prosecutors are closely watching a case that will soon be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court that could impact hundreds of Jan. 6 defendants. The justices agreed last month to hear one rioter’s challenge to prosecutors’ use of the charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which refers to the disruption of Congress’ certification of Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

More than 300 Jan. 6 defendants have been charged with the obstruction offense, and so has Trump in the federal case brought by special counsel Jack Smith. Lawyers representing rioters have argued the charge was inappropriately brought against Jan. 6 defendants.

The justices will hear arguments in March or April, with a decision expected by early summer. But their review of the obstruction charge is already having some impact on the Jan. 6 prosecutions. At least two defendants have convinced judges to delay their sentencings until after the Supreme Court rules on the matter.

Dozens of people believed to have assaulted law enforcement during the riot have yet to be identified by authorities, according to Graves. And the statute of limitations for the crimes is five years, which means they would have to be charged by Jan. 6, 2026, he said.

Several defendants have also fled after being charged, including a Proud Boys member from Florida who disappeared while he was on house arrest after he was convicted of using pepper spray gel on police officers. Christopher Worrell, who spent weeks on the lam, was sentenced on Thursday to 10 years in prison.

The FBI is still searching for some defendants who have been on the run for months, including a brother-sister pair from Florida. Olivia Pollock disappeared shortly before her trial was supposed to begin in March. Her brother, Jonathan Pollock, is also missing. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $30,000 for information leading to the arrest of Jonathan Pollock, who is accused of thrusting a riot shield into an officer’s face and throat, pulling an officer down steps and punching others.

Another defendant, Evan Neumann, fled the U.S. two months after his December 2021 indictment and is believed to be living in Belarus.

One of the biggest remaining mysteries surrounding the riot is the identity of the person who placed two pipe bombs outside the offices of the Republican and Democratic national committees the day before the Capitol attack. Last year, authorities increased the reward to up to $500,000 for information leading to the person’s arrest. It remains unclear whether there was a connection between the pipe bombs and the riot.

Investigators have spent thousands of hours over the last three years doing interviews and combing through evidence and tips from the public, said David Sundberg, assistant director in charge of the FBI Washington Field Office.

“We urge anyone who may have previously hesitated to come forward or who may not have realized they had important information to contact us and share anything relevant,” he said in an emailed statement on Thursday.

The explosive devices were placed outside the two buildings between 7:30 p.m. and 8:30 p.m. on Jan. 5, 2021, but officers didn’t find them until the next day. Authorities were called to the Republican National Committee’s office around 12:45 p.m. on Jan. 6. Shortly after, a call came in for a similar explosive device found at the Democratic National Committee headquarters. The bombs were rendered safe, and no one was hurt.

Video released by the FBI shows a person in a gray hooded sweatshirt, a face mask and gloves appearing to place one of the explosives under a bench outside the DNC and separately shows the person walking in an alley near the RNC before the bomb was placed there. The person wore black and light gray Nike Air Max Speed Turf sneakers with a yellow logo.

___

This story has been corrected to show that the Supreme Court justices will hear arguments in March or April, not that they won’t.

___

Richer reported from Boston. Associated Press reporter Lindsay Whitehurst contributed from Washington.

On Jan. 5, 2021, a person wearing a grey hoodie, a face mask, gloves, glasses and a pair of black and light grey Nike Air Max Speed Turf shoes with a yellow Nike logo placed pipe bombs near the headquarters for both the Republican and Democratic National Committees, according to the FBI.

The agency has yet to be able to identify the perpetrator and is offering a $500,000 reward for information on the suspect.

The pipe bombs were found equipped with kitchen timers, according to the FBI. Although the bombs did not go off before being discovered, the FBI says the suspect walked through residential areas with “viable pipe bombs that could have seriously injured or killed innocent bystanders.”

“We are asking for you to come forward and speak to us about any odd or out-of-character behaviors that you may have observed someone exhibiting. These behaviors leading up to January 5, their actions during the night of January 5, or their behavior changed after the night of January 5,” said Steven D’Antuono, of the FBI Washington Field Office.

The FBI is asking anyone with information on the suspect to call 1-800-CALL-FBI or submit a tip online.

To mark the moment, President Joe Biden plans to visit a site near Valley Forge, Pennsylvania, on Friday where George Washington and the struggling Continental Army endured a tough winter during the American Revolution. Biden’s advisers say the stop in a critical swing state will highlight Trump’s role in the Jan. 6 siege and give the Democrat a chance for him to lay out the stakes of this year’s election. Weather concerns led Biden to move up his appearance from Saturday.

With Biden and Trump now headed toward a potential 2020 rematch, both are talking about the same event in very different ways and offering framing they believe gives them an advantage. The dueling narratives reflect how an attack that disrupted the certification of the election is increasingly viewed differently along partisan lines — and how Trump has bet that the riot won’t hurt his candidacy.

Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying Biden’s victory, and they forced lawmakers and then-Vice President Mike Pence to flee for their lives. Many Trump loyalists walked to the Capitol after a rally outside the White House in which the Republican president exhorted the crowd to “fight like hell” or “you’re not going to have a country anymore.”

Nine deaths were linked to the attack and more than 700 people have gone to court for their roles in it, and more than 450 people have been sentenced to prison.

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Federal prosecutors in Washington have charged Trump in connection with the riot, citing his promotion of false and debunked theories of election fraud and efforts to overturn the results. Trump has pleaded not guilty and continued to lie about the 2020 election.

Trump has still built a commanding lead in the Republican primary, and his rivals largely refrain from criticizing him about Jan. 6. He has called it “a beautiful day” and described those imprisoned for the insurrection as “great, great patriots” and “hostages.” At some campaign rallies, he has played a recording of “The Star-Spangled Banner” sung by jailed rioters — the anthem interspersed with his recitation of the Pledge of Allegiance.

Republican strategist Alice Stewart said that “a lot of Republican voters don’t love Jan. 6, but they’re not obsessed about it either” and may support Trump because they oppose Biden’s economic policies.

“Republican voters can hold two consecutive thoughts and say, ‘Jan. 6, that wasn’t great, but that doesn’t affect my bottom line,’” she said.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, one of Trump’s rivals for the Republican nomination, called Jan. 6 a “protest” that “ended up devolving,” and has more recently said Trump “should have come out more forcefully” against the rioters. Another candidate, Trump’s former U.N. ambassador, Nikki Haley, frequently tells crowds that Jan. 6 “was not a beautiful day, it was a terrible day.”

But views overall of the attack have hardened along partisan lines.

In the days after the attack, 52% of U.S. adults said Trump bore a lot of responsibility for Jan. 6, according to the Pew Research Center. By early 2022, that had declined to 43%. The number of Americans who said Trump bore no responsibility also increased to 32% in 2022 compared to 24% in 2021.

A Washington Post-University of Maryland poll released this week found that about 7 in 10 Republicans say too much is being made of the attack. Just 18% of GOP supporters say that protesters who entered the Capitol were “mostly violent,” down from 26% in 2021, while 77% of Democrats and 54% of independents say the protesters were mostly violent — essentially unchanged from 2021.

A December poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research, meanwhile, found that 87% of Democrats and 54% of independents believe a second Trump term would negatively affect U.S. democracy. Some 82% of Republicans believe democracy would be weakened by another Biden win, with 56% of independents agreeing.

Biden’s campaign also announced an advertising push starting Saturday with a spot centering on the Capitol attack.

In the ad, Biden says, “There’s something dangerous happening in America.”

“There’s an extremist movement that does not share the basic beliefs of our democracy,” Biden says as images from the insurrection appear. “All of us are being asked right now, what will we do to maintain our democracy.”

His campaign is spending $500,000 to run the 60-second ad on national television news and on local evening news in TV markets in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, as well as shorter versions on digital platforms.

It’s a theme Biden has returned to repeatedly.

He marked the first anniversary of the riot in 2022 by standing inside the Capitol’s National Statuary Hall — which was flooded by pro-Trump rioters during the attack — to suggest that his predecessor and his supporters had had “a dagger at the throat of America.”

Ahead of the 2022 midterm elections, the president repeatedly characterized Trump as a threat to democracy. That included a speech at Philadelphia’s Constitution Hall, where he said that the “extreme ideology” of Trump and his supporters “threatens the very foundation of our republic.”

On the second anniversary of the attack in 2023, Biden awarded presidential medals to 14 people for their work protecting the Capitol during the attack and decried “a violent mob of insurrectionists.” More recently, he said there was “no question” Trump supported an insurrection.

“Not even during the Civil War did insurrectionists breach our Capitol,” said Julie Chavez Rodriguez, manager of Biden’s reelection campaign, in a call with reporters this week. “But, at the urging of Donald Trump, insurrectionists on January 6, 2021 did.”

Trump now counters that the federal charges he’s facing related to Jan. 6 — as well as authorities in Maine and Colorado trying to keep him off primary ballots on grounds that he incited an insurrection — show that Democrats are the ones looking to undercut the nation’s core values.

“Joe Biden and his allies are a real and compelling threat to our democracy,” Trump senior campaign advisers Chris LaCivita and Susie Wiles wrote in a memo this week.

Aside from the back and forth of politics, such arguments over who endangers America more could indicate a deeper problem.

“When each side starts talking about the other as a threat to democracy — whatever the reality is — that’s a sign of a democracy that’s deconsolidating,” said Daniel Ziblatt, a government professor at Harvard University and co-author of the book “How Democracies Die.”

Associated Press writer Linley Sanders contributed to this report.

Organizers from Women For America First told the National Park Service that they did not intend to walk from their planned demonstration on the Ellipse, near the White House, to the Capitol on Jan. 6 despite evidence they expected then-President Donald Trump to call for a march, according to the 47-page report from the Interior Department’s Office of Inspector General.

The group “intentionally failed to disclose information to the NPS regarding its knowledge of a post-demonstration march,” the report said.

According to text messages cited in the report, a representative from the group told a potential rally speaker that Trump “is going to have us march there/the Capitol,” and said the information “stays only between us.”

“It can also not get out about the march because I will be in trouble with the national park service and all the agencies but POTUS is going to just call for it ‘unexpectedly,'” the text from the group’s representative to the potential speaker continued, according to the report, which did not name the Women For America First representative.

Amy Kremer, who lists on her X account that she’s the group’s chair, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Read the full story on NBCNews.com

Matthew Thomas Krol, 65, of Linden, Michigan, assaulted at least three officers, injuring one of them, with the baton that he took from police. A prosecutor said Krol was one of the worst instigators of violence that ultimately forced officers to retreat from the mob of rioters who stormed the Capitol’s West Plaza.

Videos captured Krol’s attacks on officers, including Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell. Krol swung the stolen police baton at Gonell and struck his outstretched right hand, leaving it bloody and swollen.

Krol apologized to Gonell, who was in the courtroom, before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras sentenced him to four years and three months in prison. He’ll get credit for the time he has spent in jail since his February 2022 arrest.

“I don’t expect you to accept my apology, but I hope one day you do,” Krol told the former officer, who left the department a year ago.

Gonell urged the judge to hold Krol “accountable” for his actions on Jan. 6.

“The course of my life was changed that day, and he was part of the mob that ensured I’d lose my career,” Gonell said.

Krol is a self-proclaimed executive officer of the Genesee County Volunteer Militia in Michigan, according to prosecutors. They say he told FBI agents that he is a “militia enthusiast.”

Krol also associated with three members of the Wolverine Watchmen paramilitary group — Adam Fox, Joseph Morrison and Paul Bellar — who were convicted last year of supporting a 2020 plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, prosecutors said.

Krol isn’t accused of any involvement in the plot, but the FBI found Facebook messages that he privately exchanged with militia group leaders in Michigan. One of them was Fox, who was sentenced to 16 years in prison after a federal jury convicted him and another man of conspiring to kidnap Whitmer.

During a June 2020 online chat with Fox and another user, Krol said he was “willing to kill or die for Liberty.”

“I spoke on the Michigan Capitol steps last fall that I would rather apprehend Tyrants at the Capital, hang them on those beautiful oak tress (than) kill citizens in a civil war,” he wrote.

Defense attorney Michael Cronkright said Krol merely made “several hyperbolic and inflammatory statements that he now regrets.” He wasn’t a close associate of the Wolverine Watchmen and knew nothing about a kidnapping plot, the lawyer said.

“The government uses the phrase that Mr. Krol was ‘an associate of members’ to allude to a greater connection than exists,” Cronkright wrote.

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After his arrest on Capitol riot charges, Krol told FBI agents that his communications with Fox involved a “hypothetical.”

But prosecutors say Krol “expressed his willingness to engage in mob violence to achieve his political objectives” before he joined the mob’s Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol.

“In Facebook messages, Krol evoked the use of violence against politicians and open hostility toward (Whitmer), in addition to sharing pictures of himself carrying weaponry,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Tessman wrote in a court filing.

Krol pleaded guilty to an assault charge in August. Prosecutors recommended sentencing him to a prison term of six years and six months.

Nine months after the riot, U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers interviewed Krol as he returned from Mexico. Krol accused them of stopping him at the border only because he was a supporter of former President Donald Trump, and he referred to the Jan. 6 riot as a peaceful protest.

“During the same interview, Krol proclaimed that he was more patriotic than any of the officers who were questioning him,” Tessman wrote.

Cronkright said Krol has dedicated decades of his life to missionary and disaster relief work, including in Haiti, India, Thailand and Guatemala. Krol’s attacks on police at the Capitol lasted less than a minute, the lawyer said.

“That minute, or even that hour, doesn’t define Matthew Krol even if it demonstrates his worst behavior on January 6, 2021. Mr. Krol will offer no excuse for that behavior,” Cronkright wrote.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

The justices will review a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding that has been brought against more than 300 people. The charge refers to the disruption of Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 presidential election victory over Trump.

That’s among four counts brought against Trump in special counsel Jack Smith’s case that accuses the 2024 Republican presidential primary front-runner of conspiring to overturn the results of his election loss. Trump is also charged with conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding.

The court’s decision to weigh in on the obstruction charge could threaten the start of Trump’s trial, currently scheduled for March 4. The justices separately are considering whether to rule quickly on Trump’s claim that he can’t be prosecuted for actions taken within his role as president. A federal judge already has rejected that argument.

A lawyer for Trump didn’t immediately return a message seeking comment on the Supreme Court’s decision to review the charge.

The Supreme Court will hear arguments in March or April, with a decision expected by early summer.

The obstruction charge, which carries up to 20 years behind bars, is among the most widely used felony charges brought in the massive federal prosecution following the deadly insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol in a bid to keep Biden, a Democrat, from taking the White House.

At least 152 people have been convicted at trial or pleaded guilty to obstructing an official proceeding, and at least 108 of them have been sentenced, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

A lower court judge had dismissed the charge against Joseph Fischer, a former Pennsylvania police officer, and two other defendants, ruling it didn’t cover their conduct. The justices agreed to hear the appeal filed by lawyers for Fischer, who is facing a seven-count indictment for his actions on Jan. 6, including the obstruction charge.

The other defendants are Edward Jacob Lang, of New York’s Hudson Valley, and Garret Miller, who has since pleaded guilty to other charges and was sentenced to 38 months in prison. Miller, who’s from the Dallas area, could still face prosecution on the obstruction charge.

U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols found that prosecutors stretched the law beyond its scope to inappropriately apply it in these cases. Nichols ruled that a defendant must have taken “some action with respect to a document, record or other object” to obstruct an official proceeding under the law.

The Justice Department challenged that ruling, and the appeals court in Washington agreed with prosecutors in April that Nichols’ interpretation of the law was too limited.

Other defendants, including Trump, are separately challenging the use of the charge.

Defense attorney Kira Anne West, who has represented several Jan. 6 defendants charged with obstruction of an official proceeding, said the courts will have to “undo a whole bunch of cases” and adjust many sentences if the Supreme Court rules in their favor.

“This is a watershed day,” she said. “In our world — defense lawyer world — this is huge.”

West represents a man scheduled to be tried in early January on charges including the obstruction count. She doesn’t yet know if she will seek a delay until the Supreme Court resolves the challenge.

More than 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot, and more than 700 defendants have pleaded guilty.

Associated Press writers Alanna Durkin Richer in Boston and Michael Kunzelman in Silver Spring, Maryland, contributed to this report.

Alan Hostetter was found guilty in July after he represented himself at a bench trial. Hostetter, who was the chief of the La Habra, California, Police Department in 2010, was charged in July 2021.

Hostetter, like GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy and many far-right members of Congress, has spread conspiracy theories about the Jan. 6 attack. Ramaswamy said, without evidence, during the Republican debate on Wednesday night that Jan. 6 “now does look like it was an inside job,” while Hostetter said during his trial that he believed “that the entire thing was staged.”

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Hostetter, who was found to have carried a hatchet during the attack, also founded a group called the American Phoenix Project that protested Covid restrictions and denied the 2020 election results. He recorded a video after Donald Trump lost the election in which he said that “traitors need to be executed” and promoted Jan. 6 as the final day when patriots could make their stand.

Read more at NBCNews.com.

Kyle Douglas McMahan, 41, of Watauga, was taken into custody in Dallas nearly three years after authorities say he joined the pro-Trump mob that attacked the Capitol wearing a red “Make America Great Again” hat with “God” written on it in black marker.

After the riot, his Google search history included: “Can I resign from the military if I do not want to serve an illegitimate president?” and “capitol terrorists identified,” according to court papers.

He faces felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers and obstruction of law enforcement, as well as additional misdemeanor offenses.

There was no lawyer immediately named in the court docket. The voice mailbox was full for a number listed for McMahan and a person who answered the phone at a number listed for a relative declined to comment.

The Air Force Reserve Command said in an emailed statement that McMahan is a reservist at Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas. McMahan is a staff sergeant in the 301st Fighter Wing medical squadron and a traditional reservist who is not actively participating in the unit, the command said.

Authorities say McMahan was seen on camera pushing back and forth against an officer outside a Capitol door before going into the building. During another encounter with law enforcement inside, prosecutors say he attempted to swat at an officer and grabbed an officer’s fingers, appearing to crush them in his hand.

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Before he left the Capitol, he was captured on video telling one officer: “You’re a traitor,” according to court papers. Later that day, he was seen outside the Capitol wearing a green ballistics helmet and carrying an American flag.

Authorities say McMahan boasted on social media about being at the riot, writing: “For those that think we went in because of Trump is uninformed. We the people are the ones that need to rid our government of corruption, abuse and tyranny!”

He is among roughly 1,200 people who have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the riot that left dozens of police officers injured and halted the certification of President Joe Biden’s election victory. Those charged include dozens of former and active duty military or members of the reserve.

Nearly 900 defendants pleaded guilty or were convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from three days to 22 years.

Richer reported from Boston. AP Researcher Jennifer Farrar in New York contributed.

“We have to blur some faces of persons who participated in the events of that day because we don’t want them to be retaliated against and to be charged by the DOJ,” Johnson said Tuesday.

Johnson, who was deeply involved in efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election based on false claims of mass election fraud, said that people should do their own research into the Capitol attack.

The speaker said he is releasing the footage to counter the Jan. 6 Committee’s presentation of the riot.

Read the full story on NBC News.com here.

At 6-foot-6, Keller towered over police officers guarding the Capitol and other Donald Trump supporters who breached the building, and he was quickly identified by authorities. He pleaded guilty in 2021 to a felony charge and was one of the first rioters to publicly agree to cooperate with authorities investigating the Capitol attack.

Video captured Keller leading profane chants directed at then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, both Democrats. He also joined a chorus of rioters in singing the national anthem in the middle of the Capitol. He resisted efforts to remove him from the Capitol, ripping an elbow away and shaking off a police officer, prosecutors said.

U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sentenced Keller to three years of probation, including six months of home detention, and ordered him to perform 360 hours of community service — at a rate of 10 hours per month that he is under court supervision.

Keller told the judge he knew his actions on Jan. 6 left lawmakers in fear and made it more difficult for police to do their job.

“I have no excuse for why I am in front of you today,” he said. “I understand my actions were criminal and that I am fully responsible for my conduct.”

A prosecutor, Troy Edwards Jr., asked the judge to sentence Keller to 10 months of imprisonment. Federal sentencing guidelines recommended a term of imprisonment ranging from 15 to 21 months.

But the judge said he believes Keller’s time will be better spent speaking to teenagers and college students about his mistakes — and how to avoid repeating them — than serving time behind bars.

“If there ever was a case that screams out for probation, this is it,” Leon said.

During the Jan. 6 riot, Keller wore a jacket with an American flag on a sleeve, an Olympic team patch on the front and the letters “U.S.A.” across the back. Prosecutors said he tossed the jacket into a trash can on his way back to a hotel and later smashed his cellphone with a hammer because he knew he was “fleeing a crime scene.”

“Klete Derik Keller once wore the American flag as an Olympian. On January 6, 2021, he threw that flag in a trash can,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Keller’s lawyer said he threw away the jacket out of shame after leaving the Capitol and encountering a young boy and his father on a train. The boy asked Keller about his Olympic career and requested a photo with him, defense attorney Zachary Deubler said in a court filing.

Keller felt that “he let this young man down by behaving the way that he did, and the moment that this young man and father find out what he did, their admiration for him would be shattered,” Deubler wrote.

Investigators never recovered the jacket or any cellphone videos or photos that he recorded at the Capitol. Keller surrendered to authorities about a week after returning home to Colorado.

Keller has been cooperating with investigators since he pleaded guilty to obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory. Prosecutors pointed to Keller’s “substantial assistance” as grounds for leniency.

Prosecutors said his early guilty plea “undoubtedly reached thousands of others weighing whether to turn themselves in, plead guilty, or even cooperate.” They added that his “public acknowledgement that his interference with the peaceful transfer of power was, in fact, a serious crime provided an important counterweight to the false narrative that January 6 was a peaceful, lawful protest.”

Keller experienced personal and financial problems after retiring from professional swimming. After separating from his wife in 2014, Keller lived out of his car for nearly a year while working three jobs to pay for child support and other expenses, according to his attorney.

After the Capitol riot, he lost a job and regular visitation with his children. Last year, he signed the paperwork for his children to be adopted by their stepfather, his attorney said.

“I hope my case serves as a warning to anyone who rationalizes illegal conduct, especially in a moment of political fervor,” Keller wrote in a letter to the judge. “The consequences of my behavior will follow me and my family for the rest of our lives.”

On Jan. 6, Keller attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House with a friend before marching with a crowd to the Capitol. He entered the building through an open door on the Upper West Terrace and remained inside for nearly an hour.

Keller came within 50 feet of the Senate chamber, which lawmakers evacuated as the mob swarmed the building. Police officers had to forcibly remove Keller and other rioters from the Capitol through the East Rotunda lobby.

Keller won five medals, including two golds, while competing for the U.S. at three summer Olympics. At the 2000 games in Sydney, Australia, he won an individual bronze medal in the 400-meter freestyle event and a silver medal as the anchor leg of a relay.

At the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece, Keller swam the anchor leg when the U.S. won gold medals in the 800-meter freestyle relay, He and teammates Michael Phelps, Ryan Lochte and Peter Vanderkaay narrowly held off a rival Australian team. At the 2008 games in Beijing, China, Mr. Keller won another gold medal in a freestyle relay.

Approximately 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Nearly 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a judge or jury after trials. Over 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving prison sentences ranging from three days to 22 years.

Frank Rocco Giustino pleaded guilty in February to a misdemeanor charge related to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol. But he was arrested last month after failing to appear in court for an earlier sentencing hearing.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg told Giustino that he seemed to have no remorse for his conduct on Jan. 6 or any respect for the court’s authority.

“Your behavior from the moment of the (guilty) plea until sentencing has been about the worst of any January 6th defendant I’ve had,” the judge said.

Giustino said he condemns the violence at the Capitol and didn’t intend to be disrespectful.

“I just want to go home,” said Giustino, who will remain in custody for approximately two more months.

The judge sentenced Giustino to 90 days of imprisonment with credit for the roughly 30 days that he has remained in custody while awaiting sentencing.

Prosecutors recommended a sentence of four months of incarceration. They initially asked for a 21-day sentence, but they sought a longer term of imprisonment after Giustino disrupted a June 23 court hearing with defiant outbursts.

During the June hearing, Giustino derided his case as “an absolute clown show of a prosecution.” He told the judge that he fired his lawyer and wanted to represent himself. He also used language that appeared to comport with the sovereign citizen extremist movement’s belief that the U.S. government is illegitimate.

“We’re not doing any sentencing date,” he said, according to a transcript. “Have you guys heard anything that I have said? Have you seen anything that I have filed? This is not a real court. There is not a single judicial officer here presiding on my case.”

The judge told Giustino to act in a “civilized fashion” and said he would issue a warrant for his arrest if he didn’t show up in court for his sentencing.

“Why don’t I issue a warrant for your arrest? I think the U.S. marshal should come after you, not me,” Giustino told the judge, punctuating his rant with expletives directed at a prosecutor.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Douglas Collyer said Giustino sent him an email on Sept. 5 in which he referred to his prosecution as the “very definition of terrorism,” said he would appear in court only as a “courtesy” and demanded the dismissal of his case along with an apology.

“The defendant’s behavior has been disrespectful and belittling, to put it mildly,” Collyer told the judge.

Giustino pleaded guilty in February to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months of incarceration. More than 400 other Jan. 6 rioters have pleaded guilty to the same charge.

Giustino failed to appear in court twice after he pleaded guilty, missing a status conference in June and a sentencing hearing in September. The judge issued a warrant for Giustino’s arrest after he skipped his sentencing. He was arrested in Florida in October.

Giustino initially was arrested on Capitol riot charges in January 2022. Before the riot, Giustino frequently posted on Facebook about conspiracy theories that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump, the Republican incumbent.

He took a bus from his home on New York’s Long Island to Washington, D.C., to attend Trump’s rally near the White House on Jan. 6. He joined the crowd walking to the Capitol, where rioters disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump.

Giustino entered the Capitol through a door roughly three minutes after other rioters broke it open.

“Before Giustino made the decision to approach the door, he posted on social media that police were using tear gas against him and the other rioters, condescendingly calling law enforcement ‘civil servants,’ an affront to the hundreds of officers injured that day protecting democracy,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Giustino was in the Capitol’s Crypt when rioters overwhelmed a line of police officers. He joined other rioters in a chant inside the Rotunda. He spent about 35 minutes in the Capitol before leaving.

Approximately 1,200 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Nearly 900 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by juries or judges after trials. Over 700 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them getting terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

Also on Tuesday, a former Ohio Army National Guard specialist was arrested on charges that he attacked police with a flag pole and used his body weight to push against a line of officers at the Capitol.

A supervisor told the FBI that Matthew Honigford, 31, of Delphos, Ohio, stopped attending drill weekends, saying he “did not trust the current state of the country” after Biden’s election. Honingford was reported as absent without leave but allowed to remain in the Ohio Army National Guard until his service term expired in March 2022, the FBI said.

Matthew Honigford, a 31-year-old from Delphos, Ohio, was arrested in his home state on Tuesday and faces three felony counts, including two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and one count of civil disorder, along with several misdemeanors.

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Video cited by the government shows the man identified as Honigford held a flagpole horizontally and pushed it into an officer after berating the officers on the west side of the Capitol, where some of the worst violence took place. One of the men standing alongside Honigford around the time of the assault — Taylor James Johnatakis — was convicted of multiple charges on Tuesday.

Honigford, investigators said in an FBI affidavit, previously “stopped attending drill weekends” after Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over Donald Trump, with Honigford “stating that his sister was sick and he needed to be available to help her and that he did not trust the current state of the country following the election of Joe Biden as president.” A witness said Honigford “was reported Absent Without Leave but permitted to remain in the Ohio Army National Guard until his Expiration Term of Service date on March 14, 2022.”

Video viewed by NBC News shows the man identified as Honigford making sexually explicit comments about former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi as well as making comments about Pelosi’s love of Jeni’s ice cream and the cost of her freezer, the latter of which was a subject of a lot of attention from right-wing websites in 2020 after Pelosi appeared on The Late Late Show with James Cordon in Nov. 2020.

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“This decision will provide millions of Americans, criminal defendants, public interest organizations, and the media an ability to see for themselves what happened that day, rather than having to rely upon the interpretation of a small group of government officials,” Johnson said in a statement.

The newly elected speaker said the first tranche of security footage, around 90 hours, will be released on a public committee website Friday, with the rest of the 44,000 hours expected to be posted over the next several months. In the meantime, a public viewing room will also be set up in the Capitol for viewing the footage.

For the last several months, the GOP-led House Administration Committee has made the video available by appointment only to members of the media, criminal defendants and a limited number of other people. The video shows some of the fighting up close and gives a bird’s eye view of the Capitol complex — one that visitors rarely see — as hundreds of President Donald Trump’s supporters stormed the building, violently attacking police officers and breaking in through windows and doors.

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By expanding this access to the general public, Johnson is fulfilling one of the pledges he made last month to the most conservative members of his party, including Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., who orchestrated the ouster of former Speaker Kevin McCarthy. Both Gaetz and Trump — who is currently running for reelection as he faces federal charges for his role in the Jan. 6 attack — applauded Johnson’s decision.

In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump congratulated the speaker “for having the courage and fortitude” to release the footage.

The move by Johnson will grant the general public a stunning level of access to sensitive and explicit Jan. 6 security footage, which many critics have warned could endanger the safety of staff and members in the Capitol complex if it gets into the wrong hands. The hours of footage detail not only the shocking assault rioters made on U.S. Capitol Police as they breached the building but also how the rioters accessed the building and the routes lawmakers used to flee to safety.

A request for comment from Capitol Police was declined.

Johnson said Friday that the committee is processing the footage to blur the faces of individuals “to avoid any persons from being targeted for retaliation of any kind.” He added that an estimated 5% of the footage will not be publicly released as it ”may involve sensitive security information related to the building architecture.”

Gripping images and videos from the Capitol attack by Trump supporters have been widely circulated by documentarians, news organizations and even the rioters themselves. But until this year, officials held back much of the surveillance video from hundreds of security cameras stationed in and around the Capitol.

In February, McCarthy gave then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson exclusive access to the footage, a move that Democrats swiftly condemned as a “grave” breach of security with potentially far-reaching consequences.

The conservative commentator aired a first installment to millions of viewers on his prime-time show in the spring, working to bend perceptions of the violent, grueling siege that played out for the world to see into a narrative favorable to Trump.

It is all part of a larger effort by Republicans to redefine the narrative around the deadly insurrection after the findings of the House Jan. 6 committee last year. The select committee of seven Democrats and two Republicans spent months painstakingly documenting, with testimony and video evidence, how Trump rallied his supporters to head to the Capitol and “fight like hell” as Congress was certifying his loss to Democrat Joe Biden.

The committee’s final report released last December concluded that Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 presidential election and failed to act to stop his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

The panel passed their investigation to the Justice Department, recommending federal prosecutors investigate the former president on four crimes, including aiding an insurrection. And in August, Trump was indicted on four felony counts for his role in the attack as the Justice Department accused him of assaulting the “bedrock function” of democracy.

___

Associated Press writer Mary Clare Jalonick contributed to this report.

Troy Allen Koen, 53, of Brownsburg, Indiana, faces federal felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers, destruction of government property and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, the District of Columbia U.S. Attorney’s Office said in a news release.

Koen also faces four additional misdemeanor charges in connection with the riot.

No attorney was listed for Koen in federal court records, and he declined to comment when reached by phone Thursday evening. He was arrested Thursday in Indianapolis and was expected to make an appearance in the Southern District Court of Indiana that day, the attorney’s office said.

Separately, 57-year-old William Lewis of Burbank, Illinois, faces federal felony charges of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers and obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, in addition to at least three misdemeanor charges, the attorney’s office said in a separate news release.

Lewis’s case remains under seal, according to federal court records. It was unclear Thursday afternoon if he has obtained an attorney and Associated Press could not immediately reach anyone to comment on his behalf.

The attorney’s office said Lewis was arrested in Burbank, Illinois, on Thursday and will make his initial appearance in the Northern District Court of Illinois.

Investigators accused Koen of smashing a glass door, allowing rioters to enter the building and of assaulting officers with a flagpole, according to court documents.

Koen struggled with law enforcement officers and managed to remove bicycle rack barriers on the northwest side of the West Plaza, “creating a major vulnerability in the police line,” investigators said. Authorities allege Koen and others “violently seized” a second police barricade causing one officer to be dragged to the ground.

Court documents said law enforcement then retreated into an entryway tunnel near the Lower West Terrace behind locked glass doors. The documents included what investigators said are pictures of Koen holding a flagpole with two flags attached — one reading “Trump 2020” and the other a confederate flag.

Investigators allege Koen hit a glass door marked “Members Only” with the flagpole until it shattered, allowing others to reach through and open the door. Koen then disassembled the flagpole into two pieces and used them to, “repeatedly assault officers by jabbing the flagpoles into the officer line,” the documents said, citing body camera footage.

In Lewis’ case, court filings accuse him of deploying wasp spray against officers three times.

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Citing body camera footage, the documents said Lewis can be seen spraying wasp and hornet killer spray at law enforcement officers before throwing the canister at them.

Authorities said multiple anonymous tips identified Lewis after the FBI released images from the Capitol riots. Investigators also tracked his cellphone within the vicinity of the Capitol building in the afternoon on Jan. 6, 2021.

Lewis was also accused of breaking three window panes located to the right of the Lower West Terrance tunnel with a baton, according to court records that included photos.

Koen and Lewis are among about 1,200 people that have been charged with federal crimes stemming from the Jan. 6 riot, which left dozens of police officers injured. More than 400 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, including more than 100 people accused of using a deadly or dangerous weapon or causing serious bodily injury.

More than 700 people have been sentenced for Jan. 6 crimes, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

Federico Klein joined other Trump supporters in one of the most violent episodes of the Jan. 6 siege — a mob’s fight with outnumbered police for control of a tunnel entrance on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace. Klein repeatedly assaulted officers, urged other rioters to join the fray and tried to stop police from shutting entrance doors, according to federal prosecutors.

Klein “waged a relentless siege on police officers” as he tried to enter the Capitol and stop Congress from certifying Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump, prosecutors said in a court filing.

Klein, who didn’t testify at his trial, declined to address the court before U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden sentenced him to five years and 10 months in prison.

“Your actions on January 6th were shocking and egregious,” the judge told Klein.

McFadden also ordered Klein to pay a $3,000 fine and $2,000 in restitution. He will report to prison at a date to be determined.

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Klein worked in the State Department’s office of Brazilian and Southern Cone Affairs from 2017 until he resigned from that position on Jan. 19, 2021, a day before Biden’s inauguration.

Prosecutors said Klein’s participation in the riot was likely motivated by a desire to keep his job as a presidential appointee.

“As an employee of the federal government, Klein was endowed with the trust of the American people and to uphold the law. He violated that trust on January 6 when he attacked the very country for which he was paid to work,” prosecutors wrote.

Defense attorney Stanley Woodward has accused prosecutors of exaggerating Klein’s role in the riot due to his political connection to the Trump administration.

“Accordingly, Mr. Klein should be sentenced for his actual role in the events of the day, and not the more egregious conduct of others with which the government would have Mr. Klein be found guilty by association,” Woodward wrote.

Prosecutors had recommended a 10-year prison sentence for Klein, an Alexandria, Virginia, resident who was 42 years old at the time of the riot. Klein was arrested in March 2021.

In July 2023, McFadden heard trial testimony without a jury before he convicted Klein and a co-defendant, Steven Cappuccio, of assault charges and other Capitol riot-related offenses.

Klein and Cappuccio were among nine defendants charged in a 53-count indictment. The judge convicted Klein of 12 counts, including six assault charges.

McFadden is scheduled to sentence Cappuccio later on Friday. McFadden allowed Klein to remain free under house arrest after his conviction but ordered Cappuccio to be jailed immediately after the verdict.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for Cappuccio, who was arrested at his home in Universal City, Texas, in August 2021.

Klein and Cappuccio separately attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6 before marching to the Capitol. Klein was in the first wave of rioters to enter the tunnel, according to prosecutors. They said he pushed hard against officers, telling them, “You can’t stop this!”

Klein also wedged a stolen police riot shield between two doors, preventing officers from closing them, prosecutors said. Video captured Klein encouraging other rioters to attack police, repeatedly yelling, “We need fresh people!”

McFadden told Klein on Friday that his conduct “prolonged the mayhem” in the tunnel.

“You were front and center in that chaos,” the judge said.

Cappuccio yelled, “Storming the castle, boys!” and chanted, “Fight for Trump!” and “Our house!” as he reached the Lower West Terrace. In the tunnel, he joined other rioters in pushing against the police line, prosecutors said.

When another rioter pinned Metropolitan Police Officer Daniel Hodges against a door, Cappuccio ripped a gas mask off the officer’s face and dislodged his helmet, prosecutors said.

Klein, who served in the Marine Corps for roughly nine years, was deployed to Iraq as a combat engineer in 2005. In January 2017, he went to work for the State Department as a desk officer specializing in the South American region.

Klein also worked for Trump’s 2016 campaign and took time off from work after the 2020 presidential election and traveled to Nevada to help investigate the baseless claims of voter fraud promoted by Trump and his allies, prosecutors said.

Nearly 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after a trial. Approximately 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

Larry Fife Giberson, who graduated from Princeton earlier this year, was a 19-year-old sophomore majoring in political science when he and other rioters attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He joined the crowd in a coordinated push against officers guarding an entrance in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace.

Giberson, now 22, expressed remorse and shame for his “careless and thoughtless actions” at the Capitol before U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols sentenced him.

“I don’t believe my defining moment was there on the Lower West Terrace,” he told the judge. “Instead, I believe my defining moment is now, standing before you.”

Prosecutors had recommended sentencing Giberson to 11 months behind bars.

The judge, who also sentenced Giberson to six months of home detention after his term of imprisonment, described the New Jersey native’s conduct in the tunnel as “reprehensible.” But the judge said Giberson’s youth weighed in favor of a more lenient sentence. Nichols told Giberson that he views his two-month sentence as “something of a break.”

“I do believe that his expressions of remorse, generally and then again today, are candid and truthful,” the judge said. “That’s important to me.”

Giberson pleaded guilty in July to interfering with police during a civil disorder. The charge, a felony, carries a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Giberson faced a backlash on campus after his arrest. The Daily Princetonian published an opinion piece in which a student argued that the university should have withheld Giberson’s diploma. The newspaper also reported that a Class Day student speaker alluded to Giberson’s case.

“Some of us actually made national news,” the student joked. “I guess you can say we’re taking the country by storm!”

A Princeton spokesperson wouldn’t comment on whether the Ivy League school disciplined Giberson before awarding him a degree. Other universities disciplined students who participated in the Jan. 6 riot.

The University of Kentucky suspended a student who had entered the Capitol during the riot and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor offense. UCLA suspended a student who stormed the Capitol while waving a flag promoting a far-right extremist movement. The Citadel expelled a student after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor related to the Jan. 6 attack.

Giberson was a political science major “specializing in American ideas and institutions” with an interest in Constitutional law and interpretation, according to prosecutors. He had “concerns about the 2020 election” and told FBI agents that he went to the Capitol “to encourage what he believed to be the ‘correct’ certification” of the Electoral College vote, prosecutors said.

Rioters clinging to baseless claims of election fraud disrupted the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden’s electoral victory over Trump. More than 100 police officers were injured during the siege.

“He is a young man, but he is evidently capable of appreciating the implications of the January 6 attack on the Capitol and of his participation in that attack, having recently graduated college and earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

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Giberson and his mother drove from New Jersey to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 and attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. They walked to the Capitol together but separated before Giberson went to the tunnel.

Giberson, wearing a Trump flag around his neck, entered the tunnel and approached the police line as other rioters assaulted officers — one of the most brutal attacks on Jan. 6.

After retreating to the mouth of the tunnel, he encouraged other rioters to move forward. Later, he tried to start a chant of “Drag them out!” and cheered on other rioters, according to an FBI agent’s affidavit. Giberson remained in the area for roughly an hour, the affidavit says.

The FBI posted images of Giberson on social media to seek the public’s help in identifying him. Online sleuths also posted images of Giberson using the “#DragThemOut” hashtag.

Investigators matched photos of Giberson from the Capitol to several images found on Instagram and Princeton University’s website, according to the FBI.

Giberson was the first member of his family to attend college and earned a Princeton degree earlier this year while working a part-time restaurant job, according to his attorney, Charles Burnham.

Burnham argued that Giberson’s youth “was manifestly the main reason for his decisions” on Jan. 6.

“Mr. Giberson is by all accounts passionate about politics and government,” the defense attorney wrote. “He was too young to vote in 2016 so 2020 was the first election in which Mr. Giberson could consider himself a true participant in the democratic process.”

Nearly 1,200 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after a trial. Approximately 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

Officer Justin Lee, 25, of Rockville, Maryland, was arrested in D.C. on Thursday after he was indicted on multiple felony and misdemeanor counts, including for assaulting law enforcement, federal prosecutors said. It wasn’t immediately clear if he has a lawyer.

Lee was pictured in a “be on the lookout” image distributed by the FBI. He’s seen wearing a Maryland flag-patterned neck gaiter over his mouth.

Lee faces felony counts of civil disorder and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers. Misdemeanor counts include disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds. The seven-count indictment was unsealed Thursday.

“According to the indictment, on Jan. 6, 2021, Lee forcibly assaulted a law enforcement officer and obstructed, impeded, or interfered with a law enforcement officer during a civil disorder,” prosecutors said in a statement. “Lee is also accused of entering and remaining in the U.S. Capitol grounds while the Vice President was and would be temporarily visiting without lawful authority to do so and engaging in disruptive conduct, physical violence, and disorderly conduct while on restricted grounds of the Capitol.”

The Montgomery County Police Department said Lee applied to become an officer in July 2021, six months after the Capitol attack, and was hired in January 2022. They said they learned in July that Lee was the subject of an FBI investigation.

Lee has been suspended without pay, and the department is “taking steps to terminate his employment,” they said in a statement Thursday.

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Lee shot and killed an armed suspect this summer, police say

Lee shot and killed a 19-year-old in Gaithersburg on July 22 after the man stabbed four people in Aspen Hill, police and the Maryland Office of the Attorney General said. He was placed on administrative leave after the deadly shooting.

Montgomery County police are “initiating a comprehensive review of our background investigation process to determine whether adjustments need to be made,” they said.

“The Montgomery County Police Department conducts a thorough background investigation as part of its standard hiring process to ensure the suitability of candidates for employment. Lee’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection was not discovered during this process, as he was not identified by the Justice Department in connection with the event,” they said.

Federal and state investigations are ongoing.

More than 1,100 people have been charged so far for alleged crimes on Jan. 6.

Lee was expected to appear in court Thursday.

Stay with NBC Washington for more details on this developing story.

Ryan Kelley, who finished fourth in a primary field of five Republican gubernatorial candidates last year, pleaded guilty in July to a misdemeanor for his role in the siege.

Several months before his guilty plea, Kelley posted on social media that the Capitol riot was an FBI “set up.” His campaign posted the words “political prisoner” on Facebook after his June 2022 arrest.

U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper told Kelley that he misused his platform as a candidate for public office by promoting lies about election fraud, including the baseless claim that Jan. 6 was somehow part of an FBI plot.

“A lot of folks voted for you. A lot of folks followed you,” Cooper said before sentencing Kelley to 60 days of imprisonment and ordering him to pay a $5,000 fine.

Kelley, 42, traveled from Allendale, Michigan, to Washington, D.C., to attend then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6. Kelley told the judge that he wanted to see “receipts” supporting Trump’s claims that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from him, the Republican incumbent.

“Those receipts never came,” he said. “That is a betrayal, and I was misled into believing those things,” Kelley said.

But he said he doesn’t blame Trump for his conduct on Jan. 6.

“He did invite us there, but my actions were my actions,” Kelley said.

Kelley, a 42-year-old real estate broker, isn’t accused of engaging in violence on Jan. 6. But federal prosecutors said he helped breach scaffolding, stirred up the mob with his shouts and gestured for other rioters to move closer to the Capitol and to police officers guarding the building.

Kelley pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, a charge punishable by a maximum term of imprisonment of one year.

Prosecutors recommended sentencing Kelley to three months of incarceration.

“Mr. Kelley engaged in not just a bad decision but a series of bad decisions that day,” federal prosecutor Shanai Watson said.

Kelley’s arrest roiled what was already a complicated Republican primary for the governor’s race. Conservative commentator Tudor Dixon won the Republican primary but ultimately lost to incumbent Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, last November.

Kelley spoke at a “Stop the Steal” rally at the state Capitol in Lansing in November 2020, shortly after the presidential election. Kelley urged others at the rally to “stand and fight, with the goal of preventing Democrats from stealing the election,” the FBI said.

After attending Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on Jan. 6, he marched to the Capitol and joined a crowd that formed on the West Plaza, where flash bang grenades exploded near him.

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Kelley and other rioters climbed through scaffolding covered by a white tarp. Surveillance video captured him tearing the tarp.

“Even though his rip of the tarp was relatively modest, it extended an already existing hole in the tarp and widened the opening through which some rioters advanced on the Capitol Building,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Kelley remained on Capitol grounds for nearly two hours but isn’t accused of entering the building that day.

“Mr. Kelley understands and appreciates that he never should have participated in the protests that turned into a riot that day and that such violence has no place in our democracy,” his defense lawyer wrote.

At a debate last year, Kelley said the riot was “a First Amendment activity by a majority of those people, myself included.”

“We were there protesting the government because we don’t like the results of the 2020 election, the process of how it happened. And we have that First Amendment right. And that’s what 99% of the people were there for that day,” he said.

In a court filing after the primary loss, Kelley’s lawyers said was “still actively involved in political issues throughout the state of Michigan, and is contemplating whether he will run for a different state or federal position.”

Defense attorney Gary Springstead said on Tuesday that Kelley “wants nothing to do with politics at this point.” Kelley told the judge that he wants to focus on his business and his family.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. More than 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by a jury or judge after contested trials. Nearly 700 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

William Chrestman, 49, of Kansas, also pleaded guilty to threatening to assault a federal officer during the riot at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly is scheduled to sentence Chrestman for his two felony convictions on Jan. 12. Estimated sentencing guidelines for his case recommended a prison term ranging from four years and three months to five years and three months.

Chrestman brought an axe handle, gas mask, helmet and other tactical gear when he traveled to Washington, D.C., with other Proud Boys members from the Kansas City, Kansas, area, On Jan. 6, he marched to the Capitol grounds with dozens of other Proud Boys leaders, members and associates.

Chrestman and other Proud Boys moved past a toppled metal barricade and joined other rioters in front of another police barrier. He shouted a threat at officers and yelled at others in the crowd to stop police from arresting another rioter, according to prosecutors.

Facing the crowd, Chrestman shouted, “Whose house is this?”

“Our house!” the crowd replied.

“Do you want your house back?” Chrestman asked.

“Yes!” they responded.

“Take it!” Chrestman yelled.

Chrestman used his axe handle to prevent a barrier from lowering and closing in the tunnels under the Capitol.

Chrestman “assumed a de facto leadership role” for the Proud Boys from Kansas City, leading them around the Capitol building and grounds and serving as “the primary coordinator” of their efforts to disrupt police, prosecutors said in a February 2021 court filing.

“Encouraging others to do the same, the defendant impeded law enforcement’s efforts to protect the Capitol, and aided the armed, hourslong occupation of the U.S. Capitol by insurrectionists,” they wrote.

Chrestman was captured on video communicating with Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean outside the Capitol. A jury convicted Nordean and three other Proud Boys, including former national chairman Enrique Tarrio, of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a plot to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 election.

Chrestman, a U.S. Army veteran, has been jailed since his arrest in February 2021.

“It’s been a long process, your honor,” his attorney, Edward Martin, told the judge.

A grand jury indicted Chrestman on six counts, including a conspiracy charge.

Prosecutors said Chrestman may have tried to conceal his participation in the riot by disposing of clothes and gear he wore on Jan. 6 and giving his firearms to somebody else to hold.

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U.S. District Judge Beryl Howell ordered Chrestman to be detained while awaiting trial. Kelly upheld her ruling in July 2021.

Chrestman was charged with five other Proud Boys members and associates.

A co-defendant, Ryan Ashlock, was sentenced last November to 70 days of incarceration after pleading guilty to a trespassing charge. Two others, Christopher Kuehne and Louis Enrique Colon, pleaded guilty to civil disorder charges and await separate sentencing hearings. Two co-defendants from Arizona — siblings Felicia Konold and Cory Konold — have change-of-plea hearings set for Nov. 1.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Approximately 60 of them have been identified as Proud Boys leaders, members or associates.

Shane Jenkins, 46, tried to smash a Capitol window with his tomahawk during the Jan. 6, 2021, siege. He also repeatedly threw makeshift weapons at police officers, hurling a desk drawer, a flagpole, a metal walking stick and a wooden pole with a spear-like point.

A website touts Jenkins as the founder of a group that seeks to “shed light on the January 6th defendants and the treatment they have faced from the government.” The website sells T-shirts, hoodies, hats, tote bags and other merchandise with Jan. 6-themed slogans, including “Free the J6 political prisoners” and “Want my vote? Help the J6ers.” Another shirt for sale features former President Donald Trump’s mugshot over the words “Indicted we stand.”

The website also commemorates Jenkins’ own role in the riot. It displays a cartoon avatar of Jenkins, nicknamed Skullet, and a logo depicting crossed tomahawks below a silhouette of the Capitol building.

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Prosecutors don’t know how much money Jenkins has generated from the website’s merchandise sales. But they said he has used another fundraising site to collect more than $118,000 in donations.

“Far from contemplating the harm he has caused, examining his conscience, feeling shame for his actions, and resolving to change, Jenkins has chosen to use his January 6 status to build a brand in order to garner money and attention,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Defense attorney Dennis Boyle said Jenkins hasn’t received money from the sale of Jan. 6 merchandise and doesn’t own the site that sells it, although he couldn’t say who does.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who sentenced Jenkins, said it was “shameful” for him to capitalize on his role in the riot. The judge also rejected the notion that Jenkins and other jailed rioters are political prisoners who can’t get a fair trial.

“Nothing could be further from the truth,” Mehta said. “It’s all on video.”

Jenkins expressed remorse for his actions on Jan. 6, saying he got “caught up in the heat of the moment.”

“I love this country,” he told the judge. “And I’m not some crazed maniac set out to destroy this nation.”

Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of 19 years and eight months. They also asked the judge to impose a fine of at least $118,888, equaling the money Jenkins has publicly raised.

Mehta denied their request for a fine. He also refused to impose a “terrorism” enhancement that would have significantly increased his sentencing guidelines.

In March, a jury convicted Jenkins of charges including civil disorder and obstructing the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying the presidential election victory of Joe Biden, a Democrat, over Trump, a Republican.

Jenkins flew from Houston to Washington, D.C., a day before Trump’s rally near the White House on Jan. 6. Jenkins believed baseless claims that the 2020 presidential election had been stolen from Trump and envisioned that a “medieval melee style battle” would erupt at the Capitol, prosecutors said.

“His language invoked imagery of war and violent retribution, and his goal was to intimidate and retaliate against a government that would not install his preferred candidate,” they wrote.

Boyle said Jenkins’ actions on Jan. 6 were motivated by a “misunderstanding about the election.”

“There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the ‘great lie’ that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent,” Boyle wrote. “Mr. Jenkins is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong.”

The defense lawyer said Jenkins endured a tumultuous, abusive upbringing to became a “pillar in his community.” When he was 20, Jenkins shot and killed his stepfather in self-defense after the man pointed a shotgun at him and made death threats, according to Boyle, who said Jenkins wasn’t charged in the 1997 killing.

Prosecutors acknowledged that Jenkins wasn’t prosecuted for his stepfather’s killing, but they said his “extensive” criminal record before Jan. 6 included assault convictions and shows he has a “penchant for violence.”

In July, Jenkins and 11 other inmates at the jail in Washington assaulted another Capitol riot defendant, Taylor Taranto, in a TV room, according to prosecutors. Taranto had been saying derogatory things about Ashli Babbitt, the rioter who was fatally shot by a police officer inside the Capitol, and Babbitt’s mother, prosecutors said.

Prosecutors have argued that Jenkins played a pivotal role in the Jan. 6 attack. He struck a windowpane six times with the spike end of the tomahawk that he had carried in a backpack. He pulverized and sprayed the shatter-resistant glass.

“Are we going in or not?” he shouted at the crowd.

After Jenkins stepped down from the window ledge, another rioter stepped in to break the window.

“It is difficult to overstate the significance of Jenkins’ actions at this location,” prosecutors wrote. “As the first to attack this window, Jenkins crossed a line that had previously not been crossed at the (Lower West Terrace) — he had attacked the Capitol itself.”

Rioters eventually destroyed the window, allowing them to enter a conference room, where they made improvised weapons from the broken parts of wooden furniture. Mob members used the furniture pieces to attack police officers guarding an entrance in a tunnel on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Approximately 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by juries or judges after trials in Washington. Over 650 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of court records.

Gilbert Fonticoba, 49, of Hialeah, Florida, was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder, which are felonies, in a D.C. federal court on Friday, according to a Department of Justice press release.

Investigators say Fonticoba has been a member of the “Vice City” chapter of the Proud Boys in Miami since 2019, and that on the day of the Capitol Riot, he was one of the first to breach the police barricades onto the Capitol grounds.

Fonticoba first met up with about 100 other members of the Proud Boys near the Washington Monument on the morning of the Capitol Riot, where they dressed in normal clothing to not give away their affiliation.

The group of Proud Boys then marched to the Capitol, where they trampled over a police barricade and eventually made their way into the Capitol building, according to investigators.

Members of the Proud Boys recorded and posted several videos of Fonticoba participating in the breach of the Capitol. And, Fonticoba at one point posted “We just stormed the capital” on Telegram.

Fonticoba faces up to 20 years in prison. His sentencing is scheduled for Jan. 11, 2024.

Shane Jason Woods, 45, was the first person charged with assaulting a member of the news media during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Woods, of Auburn, Illinois, took a running start and tackled the Reuters cameraman “like an NFL linebacker hunting a quarterback after an interception,” federal prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Woods also attacked and injured a Capitol police officer who was 100 pounds lighter than him, according to prosecutors. He blindsided the officer, knocking her off her feet and into a metal barricade. The next day, the officer was still in pain and said she felt as if she had been “hit by a truck,” prosecutors said.

“Woods’ actions were as cowardly as they were violent and opportunistic,” prosecutors wrote. “He targeted people smaller than him who did not see him coming. He attacked people who had done nothing whatsoever to even engage with him, let alone harm or block him.”

Prosecutors said they tried to interview the cameraman but don’t know if he was injured.

U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta sentenced Woods to four years and six months of incarceration. Prosecutors had recommended a prison sentence of five years and 11 months.

Woods, who ran an HVAC repair business, was arrested in June 2021 and pleaded guilty to assault charges in September 2022.

He also has been charged in Illinois with first-degree murder in the death of a woman killed in a wrong-way car collision on Nov. 8, 2022.

While free on bond conditions for the Jan. 6 case, Woods was pulled over for speeding but drove off and fled from law enforcement. Woods was drunk and driving in the wrong direction down a highway in Springfield, Illinois, when his pickup truck slammed into a car driven by 35-year-old Lauren Wegner, authorities said. Wegner was killed, and two other people were injured in the crash.

Woods was injured in the crash and was taken to a hospital, where a police officer overheard him saying that he had intentionally driven the wrong way on the highway and had been trying to crash into a semi-trailer truck, according to federal prosecutors. He remains jailed in Sangamon County, Illinois, while awaiting a trial scheduled to start in January, according to online court records.

“Just like on January 6, Woods’ behavior was cowardly, monstrous, and devoid of any consideration of others,” prosecutors wrote.

A defense attorney said in a court filing that it appears Woods’ “lack of judgment has been exacerbated by his drug and alcohol abuse as well as untreated mental health issues.”

Woods was armed with a knife when he joined the mob of President Donald Trump’s supporters who stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6 and disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory over the Republican incumbent. Trump had earlier that day addressed the crowd of his supporters at a rally near the White House, encouraging them to “fight like hell.”

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Approximately 800 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted by juries or judges after trials in Washington, D.C. Over 650 have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years, according to an Associated Press analysis of court records.

___

Associated Press writer Claire Savage in Chicago contributed to this report.

The court turned away attorney John Eastman’s effort to have a lower-court ruling thrown out that said Eastman and Trump had “more likely than not” committed a crime by trying to keep Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 election.

Justice Clarence Thomas, who once employed Eastman as a law clerk, did not take part in the court’s consideration of Eastman’s appeal.

The only case argued Monday concerns the meaning of the word “and” in a federal law dealing with prison terms for low-level drug dealers. The length of thousands of sentences a year is at stake.

“I think this is a very hard case,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett said during 90 minutes of arguments that did not suggest how the court might rule.

The term is shaping up as an important one for social media as the court continues to grapple with applying older laws and rulings to the digital age.

Several cases also confront the court with the continuing push by conservatives to constrict federal regulatory agencies. On Tuesday, the court will hear a challenge that could disrupt the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The court also is dealing with the fallout from major rulings a year ago that overturned Roe v. Wade and expanded gun rights. A gun case will be argued in November. Limits on mifepristone, a drug used in the most common method of abortion, could be before the court by spring.

Among the bigger unknowns is whether any disputes will reach the court involving the prosecution of Trump or efforts to keep the Republican off the 2024 ballot because of the Constitution’s insurrection clause.

Apart from cases, the justices are discussing a first-ever code of conduct, though disagreements remain, Justice Elena Kagan said recently.

The push to codify ethical standards for the justices stems from a series of stories questioning some of their practices. Many of those stories focused on Thomas and his failure to disclose travel and other financial ties with wealthy conservative donors, including Harlan Crow and the Koch brothers. But Justices Samuel Alito and Sonia Sotomayor also have been under scrutiny.

On Monday, Thomas did not explain his decision to stay out of Eastman’s case, which involved emails that Eastman was trying to keep from the House committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol.

Some of those emails, since made public, are between Eastman and another lawyer, Kenneth Chesebro, in which they mention Thomas as their best hope to get the Supreme Court to intervene in the election outcome in a case from Georgia.

Trump, Eastman and Chesebro are among 19 people who have been indicted in Fulton County, Georgia, for their efforts to overturn the 2020 election.

Life at the court has more or less returned to its pre-COVID-19 normal over the past two years, though arguments last much longer than they used to and Sotomayor, who has diabetes, continues to wear a mask on the bench . One other change that resulted from the coronavirus pandemic remains: The court is livestreaming audio of all its arguments. Cameras remain forbidden.

Edward Badalian planned for weeks before he and a friend traveled from Los Angeles to Washington, D.C., and joined a mob in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors. They said Badalian organized group paintball sessions to train for a “firefight” and fantasized about meting out “vigilante justice” against politicians he believed to be “traitors.”

“He trained, collected weapons, and traveled across the country for the riot, with the goal of arresting and ‘violently removing’ politicians he disagreed with,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Badalian said during his sentencing on Tuesday that he was “frustrated” that officers protecting the Capitol on Jan. 6 “did not join us in arresting the traitors,” referring to members of Congress who did not overturn the 2020 presidential election on Donald Trump’s behalf.

U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Badalian, 29, of Panorama City, California, to four years and three months of incarceration, according to a Justice Department news release.

The same judge convicted Badalian of Capitol riot charges in April after hearing trial testimony without a jury. His convictions include a felony count of conspiring to obstruct an official proceeding — the Jan. 6 joint session of Congress for certifying President Joe Biden‘s electoral victory over Trump.

One of Badalian’s travel companions and co-defendants, Daniel Rodriguez, was sentenced to more than 12 years in prison for his role in the attack. Rodriguez pleaded guilty to driving a stun gun into the neck of a police officer who was dragged into the crowd and beaten by other rioters.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of 10 years and one month for Badalian, who has worked as a cabinet assembler.

Badalian created a Telegram group chat called “PATRIOTS 45 MAGA Gang” for he and other Trump supporters leading up the 2020 presidential election. He and Rodriguez used the forum to plan for “a violent revolution in which they personally planned to be at the forefront of a fight to overthrow government leaders they identified as traitors and tyrants,” prosecutors said.

On Dec. 21, 2020, Badalian posted that “we need to violently remove traitors and if they are in key positions rapidly replace them with able bodied Patriots.”

After the election, Badalian repeatedly encouraged others in the group chat to prepare for war by playing paintball, according to prosecutors.

“We need to know how to fight together while under fire,” he posted.

When another Telegram group member asked what he was training for, Badalian replied, “a firefight with armed terrorists.”

“For millions of Americans, paintball is a harmless form of entertainment and recreation. But that’s not how Badalian saw it,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

After Jan. 6, FBI agents questioned Rodriguez about the paintball sessions. He said Badalian was “probably using it as an excuse to go train or get in shape.”

“I tried listening to him and, like, he’d be like, ‘Okay, I’ll cover you. Go.’ And I remember one time I just — he’s like, go. And then as soon as I put my head up, I got shot in my face. So I’m like, okay. It’s not going to work,” Rodriguez told the agents, according to a transcript.

Badalian stayed with Rodriguez and others at an Airbnb home in Arlington, Virginia, on the eve of the riot. On Jan. 6, the group went to Washington for Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. After listening to Trump’s speech, Badalian and Rodriguez parted ways as they approached the Capitol and joined the mob’s attack.

Badalian entered the Capitol through a broken window. Police forced him out of the building about four minutes later.

On his way back to California, Badalian was interviewed about Jan. 6 under the pseudonym “Turbo” on Infowars, the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Another person on the show accidentally referred to him by his real first name.

Badalian was arrested in Los Angeles in November 2021.

Defense attorney Robert Helfend said Badalian didn’t engage in any violence or property destruction during his “4-minute misadventure” inside the Capitol.

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“He did not suit up for combat nor did he carry a weapon,” Helfend wrote in a court filing.

Badalian believed Trump’s baseless claims about a stolen election. Badalian trusted Trump as a “dominant male” figure after growing up without his father, who moved to Russia when his son was 8 years old, according to his lawyer.

“Having no other trusted and overriding male in his life, Mr. Badalian believed Trump’s lies,” Helfend wrote.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. More than 650 have been sentenced, with approximately two-thirds receiving a term of incarceration ranging from three days to 22 years, according to an Associated Press review of court records.

A third defendant charged with Badalian and Rodriguez is a fugitive.

Rodney Milstreed, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared himself for battle” on Jan. 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden club disguised as a flagpole, prosecutors said.

“He began taking steroids in the weeks leading up to January 6, so that he would be ‘jacked’ and ready because, he said, someone needed to ‘hang for treason’ and the battle might come down to hand-to-hand combat,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

A prosecutor showed U.S. District Judge James Boasberg videos of Milstreed’s attacks outside the Capitol. Milstreed told the judge that it was painful to watch his violent acts and hear his combative language that day.

“I know what I did that day was very wrong,” he said.

The judge said he believes Milstreed is remorseful.

“On the other side of the ledger, it’s very serious conduct,” Boasberg added.

Capitol Police Officer Devan Gowdy suffered a concussion when Milstreed hurled his wooded club at a line of officers.

“January 6th is a day that will be burned into my brain and my nightmares for the rest of my life,” Gowdy told the judge. “The effects of this domestic terrorist attack will never leave me.”

Gowdy told Milstreed that he “will always be looked at as a domestic terrorist and traitor” for his actions on Jan. 6.

“That brings me some peace,” added Gowdy, who has since left the police department.

Prosecutors recommended a prison sentence of six years and six months for Milstreed, a machinist who has worked at oil and gas facilities.

In a letter addressed to the judge before sentencing, Milstreed said he understands the “wrongfulness” of his actions on Jan. 6 and has learned from his “mistakes.”

“I realize if one has concerns or grievances with the government, there are peaceful and appropriate ways to express them,” he wrote.

Milstreed was arrested in May 2022 in Colorado, where he had been working. He pleaded guilty in April to assault charges and possessing an unregistered firearm.

A cache of weapons and ammunition found at Milstreed’s Maryland home included an unregistered AR-15 rifle. In his Colorado hotel room, investigators found 94 vials of what appeared to be illegal steroids.

Angry about the 2020 presidential election results, Milstreed spewed violent, threatening rhetoric on social media in the weeks leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. In late December, he emailed a Maryland chapter of the Proud Boys to inquire about joining the far-right extremist group.

On the morning of Jan. 6, he took a train into Washington then attended then-President Donald Trump ‘s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House and then followed the crowd of Trump supporters to the Capitol.

Milstreed was “front and center” as rioters and police fought for control of the Capitol’s West Plaza, prosecutors said. He tossed his wooden club at a police line and struck the helmet of an officer who later was treated for a concussion.

A video captured Milstreed retrieving a smoke grenade from the crowd of rioters and throwing it back at police across a barricade.

Milstreed then joined other rioters in attacking an AP photographer on the Upper West Plaza. He grabbed the photographer’s backpack and yanked him down some steps.

“After the photographer stumbled to the bottom of the stairs, Milstreed shoved him and advanced toward him in a threatening fashion,” prosecutors wrote.

Milstreed used Facebook to update his friends on the riot in real time.

“Man I’ve never seen anything like this. I feel so alive.” he wrote to one friend, sharing photos of blood on a floor outside the Capitol.

He told another Facebook friend that it “felt good” to punch the photographer, whose assault was captured on video by another AP photographer.

Other rioters have been charged with attacking the same photographer. One of them — Alan Byerly, 55, of Pennsylvania — was sentenced last October to two years and 10 months in prison.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Jan. 6-related federal crimes. Over 650 of them have been sentenced, with roughly two-thirds of them getting a term of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

More than 100 police officers were injured during the riot.

Epps, appearing remotely for a hearing in Washington’s federal courthouse, entered his plea on a charge of disorderly conduct on restricted grounds a day after the case was filed in the Justice Department’s massive Jan. 6 prosecution.

Epps’ attorney said after the hearing that it was a step toward putting his client’s “life back together.”

“Defamatory lies have ruined his and his family’s life,” defense attorney Edward Ungvarsky said in an email.

After the riot, Epps became the focus of a conspiracy theory — echoed by right-wing news outlets — that he was a secret government agent who incited the Capitol attack.

Driven from his Arizona home, the former Marine and ex-member of the Oath Keepers extremist group filed a defamation lawsuit against Fox News Channel this year, saying the network was to blame for spreading the baseless claims that led to death threats and bullet casings in his yard.

Michael Teter, an attorney representing Epps in the defamation case, said Epps’ plea agreement is “powerful evidence of the absurdity of Fox News’ and Tucker Carlson’s lies that sought to turn Ray into a scapegoat for January 6.”

“Had Ray been charged earlier, Fox News would have called him a hero and political prisoner,” Teter said in an emailed statement. “Instead, Fox News spread falsehoods about Ray that have cost him his livelihood and safety.”

The judge scheduled Epps’ sentencing for Dec. 20. The charge carries up to one year behind bars, but federal sentencing guidelines call for zero to six months, according to court papers.

Epps, who worked as a roofer after serving four years as infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps, has vehemently denied ever working for the FBI.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Gordon said during the hearing that “Epps was not a confidential source for the FBI or any other law enforcement agency.”

Epps has said he went to Washington to protest the 2020 election, which he falsely believed — based on stories he heard on Fox News — was stolen from the Republican president, who lost to Democrat Joe Biden.

In videos shared widely on social media and right-wing websites, Epps is seen the day before the riot saying, “Tomorrow, we need to go into the Capitol … peacefully.” On Jan. 6, video shows him saying, “As soon as the president is done speaking, we go to the Capitol.” Epps has said he left Capitol grounds when he saw people scaling walls and never actually went inside the building.

“Mr. Epps exhorted other supporters of President Trump to be peaceful on January 6 at the Capitol, and outside he repeatedly acted in support of officers to try to deescalate actions,” his attorney, Ungvarsky, said.

Epps’ lawyer noted that his client has been cooperating with the Capitol riot investigation since Jan. 8, 2021. Epps contacted the FBI to provide his information after returning home from Washington and hearing from a relative that his picture was on an FBI website. He and his then-attorney were interviewed by agents in March 2021. Epps was also interviewed by the U.S. House committee that investigated the Jan. 6 attack.

In the aftermath of the riot, the “search for a scapegoat” landed on Epps, who was subsequently featured in more than two dozen segments on then-host Tucker Carlson’s prime-time show, Epps said in his lawsuit.

A barrage of death threats would force Epps and his wife to sell their home in Mesa, Arizona, and live in a recreational vehicle in the Rocky Mountains, he told The New York Times last year.

Fox News and a lawyer for Carlson have not responded to messages seeking comment from The Associated Press.

FBI Director Christopher Wray has said he has no knowledge of Epps being a “secret government agent.” And Epps, who worked as a roofer after serving four years as infantry in the U.S. Marine Corps, has also vehemently denied ever working for the FBI.

“The only time I’ve been involved with the government was when I was a Marine in the United States Marine Corps,” Epps said during a January 2022 interview for the U.S. House Committee that investigated the attack.

Epps was once a member of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group, serving as an Arizona chapter leader before parting ways with the anti-government group a few years before the Jan. 6 attack because the Oath Keepers were “too radical” for him, he said.

Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and other members were convicted of seditious conspiracy in the Jan. 6 attack for what prosecutors said was a weekslong plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to Biden. Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison.

Altogether, more than 1,100 defendants have been charged with federal crimes in connection with the riot, and authorities continue to regularly bring new cases nearly three years later. Roughly 670 people have pleaded guilty, and of those 480 pleaded to misdemeanor charges, according to an Associated Press analysis of court records.

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Clark is charged along with former President Donald Trump and 17 others, accused of participating in a wide-ranging scheme to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s presidential election victory and keep the Republican Trump in power. All 19 defendants have pleaded not guilty.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones presided over the hearing on Clark’s attempt to move his case to federal court from Fulton County Superior Court. Jones earlier this month rejected a similar effort from Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows. Unlike Meadows, who testified at his own hearing last month, Clark was not in court as his lawyer argued on his behalf.

Clark’s attorneys last week submitted a declaration to the court in which he outlined his service in the Justice Department. Jones on Monday said he wouldn’t consider that statement after prosecutors raised concerns about not being able to question Clark about any of his assertions.

The indictment says Clark wrote a letter after the November 2020 election that said the Department of Justice had “identified significant concerns that may have impacted the outcome of the election in multiple States, including the State of Georgia” and asked top department officials to sign it and send it to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and state legislative leaders.

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Clark had been told by top department officials that the central claim in his letter was false, that he didn’t have the authority to make that claim and that it was outside the department’s role, prosecutors argued.

Harry MacDougald, an attorney for Clark, characterized the situation as a disagreement among lawyers. It is not within the authority of a state prosecutor to peer into confidential deliberations at the Justice Department or the White House and “pick a winner and a loser and indict the loser,” he told the judge.

Jones asked MacDougald if someone who was holding the two roles that Clark had at the time — assistant attorney general overseeing the environment and natural resources division and acting assistant attorney general over the civil division — had the authority to go straight to the president without going through his department superiors.

“If he’s contacted by the president, yes,” MacDougald responded.

MacDougald referenced a 2021 meeting at the White House during which Trump asked about the letter Clark had written but was ultimately convinced by others not to have it sent to Georgia officials, saying, “The theory of our case is that the president ratified this conduct in the Jan. 3 meeting.”

MacDougald dismissed the notion that federal authorities have no role in state elections, pointing out that the Department of Justice was already looking into election fraud allegations before Clark got involved.

“The Rubicon had already been crossed,” MacDougald said.

Prosecutors had subpoenaed Jody Hunt, who served as head of the Justice Department civil division before Clark. Under questioning by prosecutor Anna Cross, Hunt testified that the civil division had no role in investigating election interference or election fraud, saying that would fall to the civil rights division or the criminal division.

He also described a department memo that says communications between the agency and the White House must go through the attorney general, the deputy attorney general or the associate attorney general. That is meant to avoid people being asked to do things outside their responsibilities and to avoid conflicting requests, he said.

Another prosecutor, Donald Wakeford, argued that Clark had presented no evidence that his actions were authorized by Trump or even that Trump had the authority to weigh in on these matters. Clark also provided no explanation of what federal law he was trying to enforce or what authority or appropriate expertise he had to be looking into allegations of problems with the election, Wakeford said.

“This case does not involve federal authority,” Wakeford said, arguing for the case to be returned to the state court. “There is no federal authority here to protect.”

Clark is one of five defendants seeking to move his case to federal court, and Trump has signaled that he may join them. Although the ruling against Meadows could signal an uphill battle for Clark and the others, Jones made clear he would assess each case individually. The judge’s refusal to accept Clark’s sworn declaration could indicate to others that they should expect to appear and testify.

Meadows, who is appealing Jones’ ruling, took the stand and testified for nearly four hours last month, answering questions from his own lawyer, a prosecutor and the judge. He talked about his duties as Trump’s last chief of staff and sometimes struggled to recall the details of the two months following the November 2020 election.

Jones said he would try to rule quickly. His decision in the Meadows case came a week and a half after the hearing.

The practical effects of moving to federal court would be a jury pool that includes a broader area than just overwhelmingly Democratic Fulton County and a trial that would not be photographed or televised, as cameras are not allowed inside federal courtrooms. But it would not open the door for Trump, if he’s elected again in 2024, or another president to issue pardons because any conviction would still happen under state law.

Clark was identified as one of six unnamed co-conspirators in an indictment filed by special counsel Jack Smith charging Trump with seeking to illegally overturn the results of the 2020 election and block the peaceful transfer of power to Biden. He has not been charged in that case.

Federal agents searched Clark’s Virginia home in the summer of 2022, and video emerged of him standing in his driveway, handcuffed and wearing no pants.

Shroyer hosts a daily show called “The War Room With Owen Shroyer” for the website operated by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones. Prosecutors said Shroyer used his online platform — and later a megaphone outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 — to amplify lies that Democrats stole the 2020 presidential election from Donald Trump, who was the Republican incumbent.

Shroyer didn’t enter the Capitol, but he led a march to the building and led rioters in chants near the top of the building’s steps. He’s among only a few people charged in the riot who neither went inside the building nor were accused of engaging in violence or destruction.

He pleaded guilty in June to illegally entering a restricted area — a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum sentence of one year behind bars.

Shroyer didn’t need to set foot inside the Capitol because many of his followers did, prosecutors argued. They said Shroyer spread election disinformation and “thinly veiled calls to violence” on Jan. 6 to Infowars viewers in the weeks leading up to the attack.

“Shroyer helped create January 6,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

Prosecutors had sought four months behind bars for Shroyer, 34, of Austin, Texas.

Shroyer told U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly that he wasn’t part of any plan for violence or other illegal activity on Jan. 6. He also said he wasn’t trying to stir up the crowd with his chants.

“It was to get the attention and draw the crowds away,” he said.

Kelly told the Infowars host that there was nothing patriotic about joining a mob that interfered with the peaceful transfer of presidential power from Trump to Joe Biden. Kelly said Shroyer “amped up” the mob on the Capitol steps with his amplified words.

“Context is everything,” the judge said. “I do not believe that you were trying to distract the crowd or turn the crowd away from the Capitol.”

A date for Shroyer to report to prison wasn’t immediately set. His attorney, Norm Pattis, said he planned to appeal the sentence.

In December 2019, Shroyer was arrested in Washington after he disrupted a House Judiciary Committee hearing for then-President Trump’s impeachment proceedings. He later agreed to stay away from Capitol grounds, a condition of a deal resolving that case.

In the weeks before the Capitol riot, Shroyer “stoked the flames of a potential disruption of the (Jan. 6) certification vote by streaming disinformation about alleged voter fraud and a stolen election” on his show, prosecutors wrote. In November 2020, he warned that “it’s not going to be a million peaceful marchers in D.C.” if Biden, a Democrat, became president.

An Infowars video promoting “the big D.C. marches on the 5th and 6th of January” ended with a graphic of Shroyer and others in front of the Capitol. A day before the Capitol riot, Shroyer called in to a live Infowars broadcast and internet program and said, “Everybody knows this election was stolen.”

Shroyer, who has worked at Infowars since 2016, said in an affidavit that he accompanied Jones and his security detail to Capitol grounds on Jan. 6.

“I walked with Mr. Jones up several steps and stood near him as he addressed the crowd from a bullhorn urging them to leave the area and behave peacefully,” Shroyer said.

Jones hasn’t been charged with any Jan. 6-related crimes.

Outside the Capitol, Shroyer stood in front of a crowd with a megaphone and yelled, “The Democrats are posing as communists, but we know what they really are: they’re just tyrants, they’re tyrants. And so today, on January 6, we declare death to tyranny! Death to tyrants!” Shroyer also led hundreds of rioters in chants of “USA!” and “1776!”

After Jan. 6, Shroyer used his show to promote conspiracy theories about the riot, trying to shift the blame to left-wing “antifa” activists and even the FBI, prosecutors said. After his arrest, Shroyer raised nearly $250,000 through an online campaign described as his defense fund.

Pattis, the defense lawyer, has said Shroyer attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally as a journalist who intended to cover the event for his Infowars show. Pattis has repeatedly accused prosecutors of trampling on Shroyer’s free speech rights

“Mr. Shroyer, and every person capable of speaking in the United States, has a right to utter the speech Mr. Shroyer used. That the Government would suggest otherwise is a frightening commentary on our times,” Pattis wrote in a court filing on Sunday.

Prosecutors said the First Amendment doesn’t protect the conduct for which Shroyer was charged. Shroyer and others “stoked the fires of discontent” about driving a mob of individuals to descend on Washington, D.C., on January 6th.

“Shroyer cannot light a fire near a can of gasoline, and then express concern or disbelief when it explodes,” they wrote.

Shroyer is one of two Infowars employees arrested on Capitol riot charges. Samuel Montoya, who worked as a video editor for Jones’ website, was sentenced in April to four months of home detention. Montoya entered the Capitol and captured footage of a police officer fatally shooting a rioter, Ashli Babbitt.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 650 of them have pleaded guilty. More than 600 have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 22 years.

U.S. District Judge Ana Reyes said she can’t fathom why Dodge Hellonen violated his oath to protect the Constitution “against all enemies, foreign and domestic” — and risked his career — by joining the Jan. 6, 2021, riot that disrupted Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.

“I really urge you to think about why it happened so you can address it and ensure it never happens again,” Reyes said.

Hellonen, now 24, was the first of the three Marines to be punished for participating in the Capitol siege. Reyes also is scheduled to sentence co-defendants Micah Coomer on Tuesday and Joshua Abate on Wednesday.

The three Marines — friends from the same unit — drove together from a military post in Virginia to Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, when then-President Donald Trump spoke at his “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House. They joined the crowd that stormed the Capitol after Trump urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

Before imposing Hellonen’s sentence, Reyes described how Marines fought and died in some of the fiercest battles in American history. She recited the number of casualties from some of the bloodiest wars.

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Prosecutors recommended short terms of incarceration — 30 days for Coomer and 21 days for Hellonen and Abate — along with 60 hours of community service.

A prosecutor wrote in a court filing that their military service, while laudable, makes their conduct “all the more troubling.”

Reyes said she agreed with prosecutors that Hellonen’s status as an active-duty Marine does not weigh in favor of a more lenient sentence. But she ultimately decided to spare him from a prison term, sentencing him to four years of probation.

Reyes said it “carried a great deal of weight” to learn that Hellonen maintained a positive attitude and stellar work ethic when he was effectively demoted after the Jan. 6 attack. He went from working as a signals analyst to a job that few Marines want, inventorying military gear.

“The only person who can give you a second chance is yourself,” she told him.

“I take full responsibility for my actions and I’ll carry this with me for the rest of my life,” Hellonen told the judge.

Hellonen, Coomer and Abate pleaded guilty earlier this year to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of six months behind bars. Hundreds of Capitol rioters have pleaded guilty to the same charge, which is akin to trespassing.

Hellonen was carrying a yellow “Don’t Tread on Me” flag when they entered the Capitol through a door that other rioters had breached about seven minutes earlier.

After walking to the Rotunda, they placed a red “Make America Great Again” hat on a statue and took photos of it. They remained inside the Capitol for nearly an hour, joining other rioters in chanting “Stop the Steal!” and “Four More Years!”

None of them is accused of engaging in any violence or destruction on Jan. 6. But prosecutors said none of them has expressed sincere remorse for their crimes.

Coomer bragged on social media about taking part in “history,” called for a “fresh start” and said he was “waiting for the boogaloo,” a slang term for a second civil war in the U.S.

Coomer’s statement that he was “hoping for a second civil war to topple what he viewed as a ‘corrupt’ government was deeply ominous, given that his military training and access to military weapons would make him a particularly effective participant in such a war against the government,” the prosecutor wrote.

More than 600 people have been sentenced for Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 100 of them have served in the U.S. military. according to an Associated Press review of court records. Only a few were active-duty military or law enforcement personnel on Jan. 6.

On Jan. 18, 2023, law enforcement officers arrested Coomer at a military office in Oceanside, California; Abate at his home in Fort Meade, Maryland; and Hellonen at his residence in Jacksonville, North Carolina.

As of Friday, all three Marines were still on active-duty status, according to the Marine Corps. But all three could be separated from the Marine Corps “on less than honorable conditions,” prosecutors said.

Hellonen received separation paperwork in July, while Coomer awaited a decision last Friday on his possible separation, according to prosecutors. They said Abate was still enlisted in the Marine Corps as of Sept. 1.

“Under other circumstances, that service would be incredibly laudable,” a prosecutor, Madison Mumma, told the judge. “At best, it shouldn’t be credited at all.”

Hellonen, a Michigan native, was stationed at the military base in Quantico, Virginia, on Jan. 6. He worked at the Marine Corps Information Operations Center as a signals intelligence analyst and was promoted to the rank of sergeant in August 2021, said his attorney, Halerie Costello.

Hellonen moved to Camp Lejeune in North Carolina in February 2022 and was waiting to be deployed when he was arrested, according to Costello. Hellonen knows he shouldn’t have entered the Capitol on Jan. 6, Costello wrote in a sentencing memo.

Associated Press reporter Lolita Baldor contributed from Washington.

Gregory Mijares was identified by online “Sedition Hunters” in 2021. An FBI affidavit said the bureau received a tip in October 2021, and then interviewed Mijares in March 2023.

Mijares was arrested in Crown Point, Indiana, on Friday, according to court records, and charged with felony civil disorder along with two misdemeanor charges.

Video footage shows Mijares was the first rioter to enter the Capitol through the lower west terrace doors on Jan. 6, 2021. The lower west terrace was the site of some of the worst violence at the Capitol that day. Several police officers sustained major injuries, and rioter Rosanne Boyland died amid the chaos.

Mijares earned the nickname “Gas Hat” because footage showed him wearing his gas mask like a hat during part of the battle inside the tunnel.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com here.

Eric Munchel was convicted of conspiracy and other charges alongside his mother, Lisa Eisenhart, who was also sentenced Friday to two-and-a-half years in prison.

The photo that went viral after the riot shows Munchel jumping over a railing in the Senate gallery with a handful of zip-tie handcuffs in his hand.

Earlier this week, former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio was sentenced to 22 years in prison for orchestrating a failed plot to keep Donald Trump in power after the Republican lost the 2020 election, capping the case with the stiffest punishment that has been handed down yet for the U.S. Capitol attack.

The verdict came after a short trial for Navarro, who served as a White House trade adviser under President Donald Trump and later promoted the Republican’s baseless claims of mass voter fraud in the 2020 election he lost.

Navarro was the second Trump aide to face contempt of Congress charges after former White House adviser Steve Bannon. Bannon was convicted of two counts and was sentenced to four months behind bars, though he has been free pending appeal.

Judge Amit Mehta scheduled Navarro’s sentencing for Jan. 12. He was convicted in Washington’s federal courthouse of two misdemeanor counts of contempt of Congress, both punishable by up to a year behind bars.

Defense attorney Stanley Woodward moved for a mistrial, saying that the jurors had taken an outdoor break near where protesters and media regularly gather outside the courthouse and came back with a verdict shortly after. Mehta did not immediately rule, but said he would consider written arguments on the issue.

Prosecutors said Navarro acted as if he were “above the law” when he defied a subpoena for documents and a deposition from the House Jan. 6 committee.

A defense attorney argued Navarro didn’t purposely ignore the House Jan. 6 Committee. Navarro instead told staffers to contact Trump about what might be protected by executive privilege, something that didn’t happen, Woodward argued.

A judge has ruled the executive privilege argument isn’t a defense against the charges, finding Navarro couldn’t show that Trump had invoked it. But Woodward said prosecutors hadn’t proven that Navarro acted “willfully” or only out of loyalty to Trump.

“Do we know that his failure to comply beyond reasonable doubt wasn’t the result of accident, inadvertence or mistake?” he said.

Prosecutors, though, said Navarro should have handed over what material he could and flagged any questions or documents believed to be protected under executive privilege. They said much of the material the committee sought was already publicly available.

“Peter Navarro made a choice. He chose not abide by the congressional subpoena,” prosecutor Elizabeth Aloi said. “The defendant chose allegiance to former President Donald Trump over compliance to the subpoena.”

Trump faces a federal indictment in Washington, D.C., and a state indictment in Georgia over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Joe Biden, a Democrat. He has denied wrongdoing and has said he was acting within the law.

The House Jan. 6 committee finished its work in January, after a final report that said Trump criminally engaged in a “multi-part conspiracy” to overturn the lawful results of the 2020 election and failed to act to stop a mob of his supporters from attacking the Capitol.

“Like anyone else who has been sentenced to 22 years I can imagine he’s very astonished, but he understands there is an appeal in this case,” said Tarrio’s defense attorney Nayib Hassan in his first sit down interview since Tarrio’s sentencing.

Tarrio received the highest sentencing for the January 6th riot so far. 

Enrique Tarrio was found guilty of seditious conspiracy, the same charge that Oath Keepers leader Steward Rhodes was found guilty of, but Rhodes was sentenced to 18 years in prison. Rhodes voiced no remorse in court while Tarrio apologized.

“We knew going into it that there was a possibility that he could get a higher sentence, yet our position is that it shouldn’t,” said Hassan. 

Hassan feels the judge gave Tarrio the higher sentence because there were more Proud Boys at the Capitol on January 6th than any other group. 

U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves said in a statement, “[The Proud Boys] were at the forefront of every major breach of the Capitol’s defenses, leading the on-the-ground efforts to storm the seat of government.”

The estimation from the government is that there were more than a thousand Proud Boys compared to more than a hundred Oath Keepers.

His lawyer says because Tarrio was the leader, he took the biggest hit when it came to sentencing.

Tarrio will be in his 60s by the end of his sentence, but he didn’t receive the max which was more than 30 years in prison. 

Within the next few months Tarrio is expected to be transferred to a prison in Florida.

Ethan Nordean was one of five members convicted of spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.

“He is the undisputed leader on the ground on Jan 6,” said prosecutor Jason McCullough.

The Seattle-area chapter president was one of two Proud Boys sentenced Friday. Dominic Pezzola was convicted of smashing a window at the U.S. Capitol in the building’s first breach on Jan. 6, 2021. He defiantly raised a fist and declared “Trump won!” as he walked out of the courtroom after being sentenced to 10 years in prison, also among the longest sentences in the Jan. 6 attack.

The 18-year record for a Jan. 6 sentence was set by Stewart Rhodes, founder of another far-right extremist group the Oath Keepers. Members of both groups were convicted separately of seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offense.

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Prosecutors said Nordean’s words and online posting grew increasingly violent leading up to Jan. 6. On that day, he led a group of nearly 200 men toward the Capitol, then moved to the front of the mob and helped tear down a fence, allowing rioters to pour onto the grounds and confront police, according to court documents. Prosecutors had asked for a 27-year sentence.

Defense attorneys have argued there was no plan to storm the Capitol that day and pushed back against the idea that Nordean tore down the fence or that his rhetoric was specifically about Jan. 6. They asked for less than two years.

For his own part, the 33-year-old from Auburn, Washington, told the judge he now sees Jan. 6 as a “complete and utter tragedy” and he regretted not trying to use his leadership role to stop what happened.

“There is no rally or political protest that should hold value over human life,” he said. “To anyone who I directly or even indirectly wronged, I’m sorry.”

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, a Trump appointee who also sentenced Pezzola earlier in the day and applied a terrorism enhancement in both cases.

Pezzola, 46, took a police officer’s riot shield and used it to smash the window, allowing rioters to make the first breach into the Capitol, and he later filmed a “celebratory video” with a cigar inside, prosecutors said. He was a recent Proud Boys recruit, however, and a jury acquitted him of seditious conspiracy. He was convicted of other serious charges and prosecutors had asked for 20 years in prison.

“He was an enthusiastic foot soldier,” prosecutor Erik Kenerson said.

Kelly noted that Pezzola, of Rochester, New York, was a newcomer to the group who didn’t write the kind of increasingly violent online messages that his co-defendants did leading up to the Jan. 6 attack. Still, he was in some ways a “tip of the spear” in allowing rioters to get into the Capitol, Kelly said.

“The reality is you smashed that window in and let people begin to stream into the Capitol building and threaten the lives of our lawmakers,” the judge told Pezzola. “It’s not something that I ever dreamed I would have seen in our country.”

Defense attorneys had asked for five years for Pezzola, saying that he got “caught up in the craziness” that day.

Pezzola testified at trial that he originally grabbed the officer’s shield to protect himself from police riot control measures, and his lawyers argued that he broke only one pane of glass and that it was other rioters who smashed out the rest of the window.

He told the judge that he wished he’d never crossed into a restricted area on Jan. 6, and he apologized to the officer whose shield he took. “There is no place in my future for groups or politics whatsoever,” he said.

But a few minutes later, as he was led out of the courtroom, he raised a fist and said, “Trump won!”

Former President Donald Trump and his allies have repeatedly and falsely claiming the 2020 election was stolen. A series of federal and state investigations and dozens of lawsuits have not uncovered any evidence the election was rigged.

Four Proud Boys have now been sentenced after a monthslong trial that ended in May. Joseph Biggs, an organizer from Ormond Beach, Florida, got 17 years on Thursday, marking the second-longest sentence so far in the Jan. 6 attack. Zachary Rehl, a leader of the Philadelphia chapter, got 15 years. The sentencings come after the Proud Boys trial laid bare far-right extremists’ embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced. In addition to Rhodes, several other members of the anti-government Oath Keepers have also been convicted of seditious conspiracy after a trial last year.

“If you are a police officer and are going to abide by unconstitutional bulls—, I want you to do me a favor right now and go hang yourself because you’re a piece of s—,” Dylan Quattrucci, the deputy state director of Trump’s campaign in New Hampshire, says in the video. “Go f— yourself.”

Four officers who responded to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot later died by suicide. Earlier this month, the Justice Department determined that one of those officers, Jeffrey Smith, died in the line of duty as part of a process that awards survivor benefits to his widow.

Two people who are familiar with Quattrucci confirmed to NBC News that the man in the video is him. The video shows him wearing the same outfit that he was wearing in tweets he posted that day that were first surfaced by WMUR.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

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The 17-year prison term for organizer Joseph Biggs and 15-year sentence for leader Zachary Rehl were some of the longest sentences handed down yet in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack.

They were the first Proud Boys to be sentenced by U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who will separately preside over similar hearings of three others who were convicted by a jury in May after a four-month trial in Washington that laid bare far-right extremists’ embrace of lies by Trump, a Republican, that the 2020 election was stolen from him.

Enrique Tarrio, a Miami resident who was the Proud Boys’ national chairman and top leader, is scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday. His sentencing was moved from Wednesday to next week because Kelly was sick.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6. He had been arrested two days before the Capitol riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, and he complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest. He picked Biggs and Proud Boys chapter president Ethan Nordean to be the group’s leaders on the ground in his absence, prosecutors said.

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Rehl, Biggs, Tarrio and Nordean were convicted of charges including seditious conspiracy, a rarely brought Civil War-era offense. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Federal prosecutors had recommended a 33-year prison sentence for Biggs, who helped lead dozens of Proud Boys members and associates in marching to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6. Biggs and other Proud Boys joined the mob that broke through police lines and forced lawmakers to flee, disrupting the joint session of Congress for certifying the electoral victory by Biden, a Democrat.

Kelly said the Jan. 6 attack trampled on an “important American custom,” certifying the Electoral College vote.

“That day broke our tradition of peacefully transferring power, which is among the most precious things that we had as Americans,” the judge said, emphasizing that he was using the past tense in light of how Jan. 6 affected the process.

Defense attorneys argued that the Justice Department was unfairly holding their clients responsible for the violent actions of others in the crowd of Trump supporters at the Capitol.

Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, acknowledged that he “messed up” on Jan. 6, but he blamed being “seduced by the crowd” of Trump supporters outside the Capitol and said he’s not a violent person or “a terrorist.”

“My curiosity got the better of me, and I’ll have to live with that for the rest of my life,” he said, claiming he didn’t have “hate in my heart” and didn’t want to hurt people.

During the trial, jurors saw a trove of messages that Proud Boys leaders privately exchanged in the weeks leading up to the Capitol riot, including Biggs encouraging Tarrio to “get radical and get real men” after Trump announced plans for a rally on Jan. 6.

That day, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. Before the first breach, Biggs used a megaphone to lead rioters in chants of “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!”

Biggs “acted as the tip of the spear” during the attack, prosecutors said in a court filing. He tore down a fence and charged up scaffolding before entering the Capitol. He left the Capitol but reentered the building and went to the Senate chamber.

For Rehl, who also helped lead Proud Boys, prosecutors asked for a 30-year prison sentence. He was seen on video spraying a chemical irritant at law enforcement officers outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, but he repeatedly lied about that assault while he testified at his trial, said prosecutor Erik Kenerson. “He tried to craft a narrative to fit the evidence and he was caught,” Kenerson said.

Rehl also led at least three other men into the Capitol and into a senator’s office, where he smoked and posed for pictures while flashing the Proud Boys’ hand gesture, prosecutors said in court documents.

“Rehl led an army to attempt to stop the certification proceeding, was proud that they got as close as they did, and his only regret in the immediate aftermath was that they did not go further,” they wrote in a court filing.

Kelly read from some of the “chilling” messages Rehl sent after Jan. 6, including one, the judge said, that read, “Everyone should have showed up armed and taken the country back the right way.” The judge shook his head and said, “I mean, my God.”

Rehl sobbed as he told the judge he deeply regretted being at the Capitol that day. “I’m done with all of it, done peddling lies for other people who don’t care about me,” Rehl said. “Politicians started spreading lies about the election, and I fell for it hook, line and sinker.”

His defense attorney argued that Rehl and others who rioted at the Capitol that day were following Trump’s urging, and genuinely believed that something was fundamentally wrong with the election when they took to the streets. “What they’re guilty of is believing the president who said the election was stolen from him,” Norm Pattis said.

Kelly acknowledged that was a factor, but a “very modest one.”

Prosecutors have also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Tarrio, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. Nordean and Pezzola are scheduled to be sentenced Friday.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 600 of them have been convicted and sentenced.

The 18-year prison sentence for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes is the harshest punishment for a Jan. 6 so far. Six members of the anti-government Oath Keepers also were convicted of seditious conspiracy after a separate trial last year.

Prosecutors are seeking 33 years behind bars for Tarrio, who had been scheduled for sentencing on Wednesday. That would be the longest sentence so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.

U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly, who postponed the sentencing shortly before it was to take place, isn’t bound by prosecutors’ recommendation when he sentences Tarrio in Washington’s federal courthouse, which sits within view of the Capitol. The sentencing for former Proud Boys chapter leader Ethan Nordean was also delayed Wednesday; it will now be Friday.

Kelly this week also was scheduled to sentence three other Proud Boys members who were convicted by a jury in May after a trial alongside Tarrio and Nordean. It’s unclear whether their hearings will be postponed, too.

Tarrio had already been arrested and ordered to leave Washington, D.C., by the time Proud Boys members joined thousands of Trump supporters in storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, as lawmakers met to certify Joe Biden’s election victory. But prosecutors say Tarrio organized and led the group’s assault from afar, inspiring followers with his charisma and penchant for propaganda.

Tarrio was a top target in one of the most important Capitol riot cases prosecuted by the Justice Department. He and three lieutenants were convicted in May of charges including seditious conspiracy — a rarely brought Civil War-era offense that the Justice Department levied against members of far-right groups who played a key role in the Jan. 6 attack. His sentencing, now set for Sept. 5, caps one of the most significant prosecutions in the U.S. Capitol insurrection.

“Using his powerful platform, Tarrio has repeatedly and publicly indicated that he has no regrets about what he helped make happen on January 6,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing.

The Justice Department has also recently charged Trump with conspiring to subvert American democracy, accusing the Republican of plotting in the days before the attack to overturn the results of the election that he lost to Biden, a Democrat. The Tarrio case — and hundreds of others like it — function as a vivid reminder of the violent chaos fueled by Trump’s lies around the election and the extent to which his false claims helped inspire right-wing extremists who ultimately stormed the Capitol to thwart the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Trump, who is the early front-runner for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, insists he did nothing wrong. His trial is set for March 4.

The 33-year prison sentence that prosecutors have recommended for Tarrio, 39, of Miami, is nearly twice as long as the harshest punishment that has been handed down so far in the Justice Department’s massive Jan. 6 prosecution. The longest prison sentence so far went to Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who got 18 years for seditious conspiracy and his conviction on other charges.

Tarrio, Nordean and fellow Proud Boys Joseph Biggs and Zachary Rehl were convicted of seditious conspiracy. A fifth Proud Boys member, Dominic Pezzola, was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Prosecutors also recommended prison sentences of 33 years for Biggs, 30 years for Rehl, 27 years for Nordean and 20 years for Pezzola. Nordean, of Auburn, Washington, and Rehl, of Philadelphia, led local Proud Boys chapters. Biggs, of Ormond Beach, Florida, was a self-described Proud Boys organizer. Pezzola was a group member from Rochester, New York.

Tarrio’s lawyers denied the Proud Boys had any plan to attack the Capitol. They argued that prosecutors used Tarrio as a scapegoat for Trump, who spoke at the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 and urged his supporters to “fight like hell.”

In urging the judge for a lenient sentence, Tarrio’s lawyers noted in court papers that he has a history of cooperating with law enforcement. Court records uncovered in 2021 showed that Tarrio previously worked undercover and cooperated with investigators after he was accused of fraud in 2012.

Tarrio’s lawyers urged the judge “to see another side of him — one that is benevolent, cooperative with law enforcement, useful in the community, hardworking and with a tight-knit family unit and community support.”

Police arrested Tarrio in Washington two days before the riot on charges that he defaced a Black Lives Matter banner during an earlier rally in the nation’s capital, but law enforcement officials later said he was arrested in part over concerns about the potential for unrest during the certification. He complied with a judge’s order to leave the city after his arrest.

On Jan. 6, dozens of Proud Boys leaders, members and associates were among the first rioters to breach the Capitol. The mob’s assault overwhelmed police, forced lawmakers to flee the House and Senate floors and disrupted the joint session of Congress for certifying Biden’s victory.

Tarrio picked Nordean and Biggs to be his top lieutenants on Jan. 6 and created an encrypted Telegram group chat for group leaders to communicate, according to prosecutors. The backbone of the case against Tarrio and other Proud Boys leaders was messages that they privately exchanged before, during and after the Jan. 6 attack.

“Make no mistake … we did this,” Tarrio wrote to other group leaders.

Tarrio also posted encouraging messages on social media during the riot, expressing pride for what he saw unfold at the Capitol and urging his followers to stay there. He also posted a picture of rioters in the Senate chamber with the caption “1776.”

Several days before the riot, a girlfriend sent Tarrio a document entitled “1776 Returns.” It called for storming and occupying government buildings in Washington “for the purpose of getting the government to overturn the election results,” according to prosecutors.

More than 1,100 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol attack. More than 600 of them have been sentenced, with over half receiving terms of imprisonment.

___

Associated Press writer Eric Tucker contributed to this report.

Brandon Fellows, who has called Jan. 6 a “beautiful day” and said he liked the fact that senators and members of Congress feared for their lives, is representing himself in a trial that began last week.

Fellows is facing a federal felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting along with misdemeanors in connection with the Capitol attack. He’s also accused of smoking marijuana inside of a hideaway office that belonged to Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore.

“I didn’t know it was a senator’s desk,” Fellows said. “It felt very comfy.”

Fellows said he believed he was fighting against “the corrupt government” on Jan. 6, but said he did not take part in violence himself, even if he supported it. Fellows said that he believed that some violence on Jan. 6 was preferable to more violence down the line.

For more on this story go to NBCNews.com.

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Meadows, who was charged this month along with former President Donald Trump and 17 other people, is seeking to fight the charges in federal court rather than in state court. As part of that effort, he testified that he never asked White House personnel officer John McEntee to draft a memo to Vice President Mike Pence on how to delay certification of the election.

“When this came out in the indictment, it was the biggest surprise for me,” Meadows said Monday. He later said, “Me asking Johnny McEntee for this kind of a memo just didn’t happen.”

He also said he did not text the Georgia secretary of state’s office chief investigator, Frances Watson, as the indictment alleged. Rather, he said he believes that text was sent to Jordan Fuchs, the secretary of state’s chief of staff.

Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis, who used Georgia’s racketeering law to bring the case, alleges that Trump, Meadows and the others participated in a wide-ranging conspiracy to try to keep the Republican president in power illegally even after his election loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Willis argues that Meadows’ actions were political in nature and not performed as part of his official duties.

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ended Monday’s hearing without making an immediate ruling on Meadows’ request to move the trial.

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The extraordinary testimony from Trump’s former chief of staff came as two of the former president’s attorneys listened attentively in the courtroom. Monday’s hearing in Georgia involved just one of four criminal cases that Trump is currently facing. In Washington, a judge overseeing a federal case over charges that Trump sought to illegally subvert the results of the 2020 election set a trial date for March 4, 2024, right in the heart of the presidential primary calendar.

Lawyers for Meadows argue that his actions that gave rise to the charges in the indictment “all occurred during his tenure and as part of his service as Chief of Staff.” They argue that he did nothing criminal and that the charges against him should be dismissed, and they want U.S. District Judge Steve Jones to move the case to federal court to halt any proceedings against him at the state level.

During Monday’s hearing, Meadows attorney George J. Terwilliger III quickly called his client to the stand and asked him about his duties as Trump’s chief of staff. The lawyer then walked him through the acts alleged in the indictment to ask if he had done those as part of his job. For most of the acts listed, Meadows said he had performed them as part of his official duty.

In the cross-examination, prosecutor Anna Cross ticked through the same acts to ask Meadows what federal policy was being advanced in each of them. He frequently answered that the federal interest was in ensuring accurate and fair elections, but she accused him several times of not answering her question.

Willis’ team argues that the actions in question were meant solely to keep Trump in office. These actions were explicitly political in nature and are illegal under the Hatch Act, which restricts partisan political activity by federal employees, they wrote in a response to Meadows’ notice of removal to federal court. They believe the case should remain in Fulton County Superior Court.

The allegations against Meadows include participating in meetings or communications with state lawmakers along with Trump and others that were meant to advance the alleged illegal scheme to keep Trump in power; traveling to Atlanta’s suburbs where a ballot envelope signature audit was happening; arranging a phone call between Trump and a Georgia secretary of state investigator; and participating in a January 2021 phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during which Trump suggested Raffensperger could help “find 11,780 votes” needed for him to win Georgia.

Cross asked Meadows on Monday why he was present in an Oval Office meeting with Michigan legislators in which, the indictment alleges, Trump made false claims about election fraud in the state. Meadows said he was responsible for managing the president’s time and it was important for someone to keep the meeting moving and wrap it up when it was finished.

Willis’ team subpoenaed several witnesses to appear at Monday’s hearing, including Raffensperger, Watson and two lawyers who did work for Trump in Georgia in the aftermath of the election but who were not named in the indictment. The team has also submitted excerpts of previously taken depositions of several people, including former Meadows assistant Cassidy Hutchinson.

Two of Trump’s attorneys in the Georgia case, Steve Sadow and Jennifer Little, watched the proceedings in the courtroom, as did lawyers for at least one other co-defendant in the case.

Willis’ team argues that Meadows is not entitled to immunity under the Supremacy Clause of the U.S. Constitution, which basically says that federal law takes precedence over state law, because his actions were “improper political activity” that weren’t part of his official duties and the evidence shows that he had “personal or criminal motivations for acting.”

In response to Willis’ team’s filing, Meadows’ lawyers said all that is at issue at the moment is whether the case should be moved to federal court and that he has met that “very low threshold.”

Meadows was a federal official and his actions were part of that role, they wrote, noting that the chief of staff has “broad-ranging duties to advise and assist the President.” The merits of his arguments of immunity cannot be used to decide whether the case should be moved to federal court, they argued.

They added that the “Hatch Act is a red herring, particularly at this stage,” and shouldn’t even be discussed until after the case is moved to federal court. “Nonetheless, Mr. Meadows complied with federal law in connection with the charged conduct,” they wrote.

At least four others charged in the indictment are also seeking to move the case to federal court, including U.S. Justice Department official Jeffrey Clark. The other three — former Georgia Republican Party chair David Shafer, Georgia state Sen. Shawn Still and Cathy Latham — are among the 16 Georgia Republicans who signed a certificate declaring falsely that Trump had won the 2020 presidential election and declaring themselves the state’s “duly elected and qualified” electors.

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Curtis Logan Tate, known to online “Sedition Hunters” as #ShinyCircleTattoo because of a distinct tattoo on his hand, was arrested in North Carolina on Thursday. He faces several charges, including a felony charge of assaulting federal officers while using a deadly or dangerous weapon and a felony count of assaulting law enforcement during a civil disorder. The other items he allegedly used in the attack were a speaker box and a broken table leg.

An affidavit details an interview FBI special agents conducted with Tate at his residence just days after the riot, on Jan. 13, 2021. The FBI said Tate insisted he had not committed any acts of violence, saying he did not agree with “destroying s—, breaking s—, [or] destroying our historic house.”

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In spite of his claims to the FBI, images of Tate were added to the FBI’s Capitol Violence webpage, which the bureau has used to ask members of the public to identify individuals who assaulted police officers.

For more on this story go to NBCNews.com.

Anthony Mastanduno, who was no. 397 on the FBI’s Capitol Violence website, was charged with a variety of federal crimes, including assaulting law enforcement. The FBI said he used a stolen police shield to assault officers as well as a baton and a blue pole.

The FBI found Mastanduno’s publicly accessible Facebook page included an image of the “Trump 2020 Keep America Great!” hat that he appears to have worn to the Capitol, which included a patch on the bill “containing half of an American flag and half of the Marines insignia.”

After contacting Mastanduno’s employer, the FBI said, they learned he’d been absent from work on Jan. 6 and Jan. 7.

For more on this story go to NBCNews.com.

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Erin Smith, the widow of Jeffrey Smith, was instrumental in the passage of a renewed version of the Public Safety Officer Support Act that President Joe Biden signed into law last August.

The legislation made the families of officers who died by suicide eligible for the federal benefits that go to first responders, so long as their death is found to have been linked to their official duties and exposure to a traumatic event.

The Justice Department’s Public Safety Officers’ Benefit Office informed Smith’s lawyer of the decision on Friday.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

If you or someone you know needs help, please contact the National Suicide Prevention hotline at 988, or reach out to the Crisis Text Line by texting ‘Home’ to 741741, anytime.

Christopher Worrell of Naples, Florida, was supposed to be sentenced Friday after being found guilty of spraying pepper spray gel on police officers, as part of the mob storming the Capitol as Congress was certifying Joe Biden’s presidential victory on Jan. 6, 2021. Prosecutors had asked a judge to sentence him to 14 years.

The sentencing was canceled and a bench warrant for his arrest issued under seal on Tuesday, according to court records. The U.S. attorney’s office for Washington, D.C., encouraged the public to share any information about his whereabouts.

Worrell had been on house arrest in Florida since his release from jail in Washington in November 2021, less than a month after a judge substantiated his civil-rights complaints about his treatment in the jail.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth found Worrell’s medical care for a broken hand had been delayed, and held D.C. jail officials in contempt of court.

His attorney William Shipley declined to comment. Phone numbers listed for Worrell and the woman named as his custodian during his house arrest were not functional.

More than three dozen people charged in the Capitol siege have been identified by federal authorities as leaders, members or associates of the Proud Boys, whose members describe it as a politically incorrect men’s club for “Western chauvinists.”

Former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and three other members of the extremist group were convicted of seditious conspiracy in May.

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A total of about 1,000 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 riot. More than 600 of them have pleaded guilty or been convicted after trials decided by a jury or judge. About 600 have been sentenced, with over half getting terms of imprisonment ranging from three days to 18 years.

Tarrio, who once served as national chairman of the far-right extremist group, and three lieutenants were convicted by a Washington jury in May of conspiring to block the transfer of presidential power in the hopes of keeping Republican Donald Trump in the White House after he lost the 2020 election.

Prosecutors are also asking for a 33-year-sentence for one of Tarrio’s co-defendants, Joseph Biggs of Ormond Beach, Florida, a self-described Proud Boys organizer.

They are asking the judge to impose a 30-year prison term for Zachary Rehl, who was president of the Proud Boys chapter in Philadelphia; 27 years in prison for Ethan Nordean of Auburn, Washington, who was a Proud Boys chapter president; and 20 years for Dominic Pezzola, a Proud Boys member from Rochester, New York. Pezzola was acquitted of seditious conspiracy but convicted of other serious charges.

Tarrio, of Miami, and his co-defendants will be sentenced before U.S. District Judge Timothy Kelly in a string of hearings starting later this month in Washington’s federal court.

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It’s the same courthouse where Trump pleaded not guilty this month in the case brought by special counsel Jack Smith accusing the Republican of illegally scheming to subvert the will of voters and overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Trump has denied any wrongdoing.

Tarrio, who was not at the Jan. 6 riot itself, and his three lieutenants were also convicted of two of the same charges Trump faces: obstruction of Congress’ certification of Biden’s victory, and conspiracy to obstruct Congress.

The Proud Boys will be the second group of far-right extremists sentenced for seditious conspiracy convictions in the Jan. 6 attack. Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes was sentenced in May to 18 years in prison, and other members of the antigovernment militia group also received lengthy prison terms.

Prosecutors, however, are appealing those sentences, which were lower what than the government had been seeking. Prosecutors had asked U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta to sentence Rhodes to 25 years behind bars.

Tarrio was a top target of what has become the largest Justice Department investigation in American history. He led the neo-fascist group — known for street fights with left-wing activists — when Trump infamously told the Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his first debate with Biden.

Tarrio wasn’t in Washington on Jan. 6, because he had been arrested two days earlier in a separate case and ordered out of the capital city. But prosecutors alleged he organized and directed the attack by Proud Boys who stormed the Capitol that day.

During the monthslong trial, prosecutors argued that the Proud Boys viewed themselves as foot soldiers fighting for Trump as the Republican spread lies that Democrats stole the election from him, and were prepared to go to war to keep their preferred leader in power.

Defense attorneys argued there was no conspiracy and no plan to attack the Capitol, and sought to portray the Proud Boys as an unorganized drinking club whose members’ participation in the riot was a spontaneous act fueled by Trump’s election rage. Tarrio’s lawyers tried to argue that Trump was the one to blame for extorting a crowd outside the White House to “ fight like hell.”

Michael Steven Perkins, 40, of Plant City, was sentenced in District of Columbia federal court, according to court records. His co-defendant, Joshua Christopher Doolin, 25, of Lakeland, received one year and six months on Wednesday.

Both were convicted earlier this year of felony civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.

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Doolin was also convicted of theft of government property. Perkins was separately convicted of assaulting a federal officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and engaging in acts of physical violence while on the restricted Capitol grounds.

Doolin and Perkins were arrested on June 30, 2021, along with co-defendants Joseph Hutchinson and Olivia Pollock, officials said. A federal judge issued bench warrants for Hutchinson and Pollock in March after the FBI reported that they had tampered with or removed their ankle monitors and disappeared.

A fifth co-defendant, Jonathan Pollock, has not yet been apprehended, and the FBI is offering a reward of up to $30,000 in exchange for information leading to his arrest and conviction.

According to court documents, Doolin and Perkins joined with others in objecting to Democrat Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over then-President Donald Trump. A mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, in an attempt to stop Congress from certifying election results for Biden over the Republican Trump, authorities said. Five people died in the violence.

According to evidence and testimony presented at trial, Doolin and Perkins were on the west side of the Capitol on Jan. 6. Hutchinson, pushed from behind by Perkins, charged a line of police officers in an effort to break through the line, prosecutors said.

As officers descended into the crowd to help another officer, Perkins picked up a flagpole and thrust it into the chest of an approaching officer, authorities said. Perkins then raised the flagpole over his head and swung it down, striking two officers in the back of their heads, officials said.

Doolin and Perkins then advanced closer to the Capitol building, where Doolin acquired a Metropolitan Police Department crowd-control spray cannister and a U.S. Capitol Police riot shield, prosecutors said. Doolin eventually re-located to a Capitol building entrance passageway, where he used the stolen riot shield to join the crowd of rioters pushing against the police officers inside the passageway in an effort to break through and enter the Capitol, officials said.

Attorneys for Doolin and Perkins didn’t immediately respond to emails seeking comment from The Associated Press.

Since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,100 people have been arrested for crimes related to the breach of the Capitol, officials said. More than 350 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

Ronald Alfred Bryan, 70, was arrested on Wednesday and he made his initial court appearance in Louisiana, according to the Justice Department. He had been No. 418 on the FBI’s Capitol Violence website, wanted for assault on a federal officer.

Bryan faces several charges, including obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, theft of government property and assault on a federal officer.

For more on this story, go to NBC News.

Matthew Thomas Krol, 64, of Linden entered the plea in the District of Columbia to a felony count of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon, the Department of Justice said in a news release.

Krol is scheduled to be sentenced on Dec. 15.

Federal prosecutors say Krol threw a water bottle at police officers, pulled other civilians out of his way, and attacked an officer with the Metropolitan Police Department. He also grabbed an officer, spun him around, and stole his police baton, using it to hit other officers, prosecutors said.

Krol was arrested on Feb. 22, 2022, in Linden. He is a self-professed past leader of the Genesee County Volunteer Militia, court documents said.

Krol’s attorney, Michael Cronkright of Lansing, told the Detroit Free Press that his client is “very remorseful” and said all of his wrongdoing occurred in the space of “less than a minute” after he got caught up in the crowd.