Rioter who breached Senate gets 8 months’ jail
The first person convicted of a felony in the Jan 6 attack on the US Capitol in Washington has been sentenced to eight months in prison and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for a portion of damage to the building.
Paul Hodgkins, 38, of Florida, pleaded guilty to breaching the Senate chamber in the Capitol.
US District Court Judge Randolph Moss sentenced him on Monday to far less than the 1.5-year prison term that the Justice Department requested. Moss departed from that recommendation, saying Hodgkins contributed to a grave offense against democracy but deserved some leniency because he pleaded guilty “exceptionally early”, was not involved in violence and issued a “sincere” apology.
Hodgkins spent 15 minutes in the
Senate chamber, holding a flag supporting then-US president Donald Trump and taking pictures.
“Although Mr Hodgkins was only one member of a larger mob, he actively and intentionally participated in an event that threatened not only the security of the Capitol but democracy itself,” Moss said. “That is chilling, for many reasons.”
Hodgkins had asked Moss for no prison time. He said he had no plans to enter the Capitol when he traveled to attend Trump’s rally earlier in the day, but he got swept up in the march along Pennsylvania Avenue.
Once inside the Capitol, he said he apologized to police officers for the trouble and also offered medical care to an injured rioter.
“I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I am truly remorseful and regretful for my actions in Washington,” Hodgkins told the court. “This was a foolish decision on my part that I take full responsibility for it.”
Mona Sedky, an assistant US attorney, acknowledged that Hodgkins was not violent or destructive, and he had witnessed police officers being injured and rioters spraying chemicals. She said he came ready for the conflict with goggles and gloves and benefited from the violence of others. He was among about 50 people who made it into the Senate chamber.
‘Domestic terrorism’
“At its core, this was a grave danger to our democracy,” said Sedky, calling it “an act of domestic terrorism”.
Patrick Leduc, a defense lawyer for Hodgkins, disputed calling the riot domestic terrorism and said it was a protest that led to a riot.
But Moss said rioters interrupted one of the most solemn functions of democracy — counting Electoral College votes for the peaceful transfer of power.
Hodgkins is among the first dozen defendants to reach plea bargains with prosecutors, four for felonies and eight for misdemeanors. Two defendants with misdemeanors have been sentenced, one to six months in prison and one to three years of probation.
At least 535 people were charged in the first six months after the attack, with 165 accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, according to the Justice Department. More than 50 people are charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon, or causing serious bodily injury to an officer.
About 140 police officers were injured during the melee that temporarily halted Congress counting Electoral College votes. The disruption led to charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence.