Wall-scaling rioter to spend 4 years in prison

A Tennessee business owner who scaled a wall outside the U.S. Capitol was sentenced Friday to four years in prison after he was convicted of five charges connected to the raid on Jan. 6, 2021, federal prosecutors said.

Matthew Bledsoe, 38, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, was found guilty in July of one felony — obstruction of an official proceeding — and four misdemeanors related to the Capitol breach, the Department of Justice said.

Federal prosecutors said Bledsoe was one of scores of people who forced their way into the Capitol as Congress met to certify President Joe Biden’s victory. Bledsoe illegally entered the Capitol grounds and scaled a wall to reach a fire door on the Senate side of the building.