Capitol rioter who breached Senate gets 8 months
A Florida man who breached the U.S. Senate chamber carrying a Trump campaign flag was sentenced Monday to eight months behind bars, the first resolution for a felony case in the Capitol insurrection.
Paul Allard Hodgkins apologized and said he was ashamed of his actions Jan 6. Speaking calmly from a prepared text, he described being caught up in the euphoria as he walked down Washington’s most famous avenue, then followed a crowd of hundreds up Capitol Hill and into the Capitol building.
“If I had any idea that the protest ... would escalate (the way) it did ... I would never have ventured farther than the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue,” Hodgkins told the judge. He added: “This was a foolish decision on my part.”
Prosecutors had asked for Hodgkins to serve 18 months behind bars, saying in a recent filing he, “like each rioter, contributed to the collective threat to democracy” by forcing lawmakers to temporarily abandon their certification of Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory over U.S. president Donald Trump and to scramble for shelter from incoming mobs.
His sentencing could set the bar for punishments of hundreds of other defendants as they decide whether to accept plea deals or go to trial. He and others are accused of serious crimes but were not indicted, as some others were, for roles in larger conspiracies.
Under an agreement with prosecutors, Hodgkins pleaded guilty last month to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, which carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence. In exchange, prosecutors dropped lesser charges, including entering a restricted building and disorderly conduct.
Video footage shows Hodgkins wearing a Trump 2020 Tshirt, the flag flung over his shoulder and eye goggles around his neck, inside the Senate. He took a selfie with a selfdescribed shaman in a horned helmet and other rioters on the dais behind him.
His lawyer argued in court papers the 38-year-old Hodgkins’ actions weren’t markedly different from those of Anna Morgan Lloyd — other than Hodgkins stepping onto the Senate floor.
The 49-year-old from Indiana was the first of roughly 500 arrested to be sentenced.
Lloyd previously pleaded guilty to misdemeanour disorderly conduct and last month was sentenced to three years of probation.