

Prosecutors said the recording captured an assault on an officer, though they opted not to file new charges. Civil war is coming, he wrote in December. But he liked the message of Make America Great Again, and after the election, he touted groundless claims of fraud on Facebook. Then armchair detectives who call themselves Sedition Hunters unearthed the video online. One defendant, Robert Reeder of Harford County, Md., is a registered Democrat who told FBI agents he found the former president distasteful. Reeder had been expected to get probation last month, after pleading guilty to a misdemeanor and saying he had not been involved in any violence that day. “This was an attack on the operations of Congress and the Capitol of the United States, a really sacrosanct building,” he said. He said he believed Reeder is sorry now and sentenced him to half of the six months prosecutors had wanted, but the judge said some of Reeder’s previous statements had been “disingenuous and self-serving.” Hogan said he hopes the sentence sends a signal that people convicted in the riot will face jail time. They seem, to me, to be trying to get this out of the way as quickly as possible, stating whatever they have to say … but not changing their attitude,” Hogan said. “It’s become evident to me that many of the defendants pleading guilty do not truly accept responsibility. District Judge Thomas Hogan spoke as he sentenced Robert Reeder, a Maryland man who had originally described himself as an “accidental tourist” before video emerged of him grabbing a police officer. More on thisĪ Capitol Rioter Says He's Working On A Video Game Featuring Donald Trump Shooting “Dem Zombies” And “Antifa” Zoe Tillman Ī Judge Questioned If Capitol Rioters Are Getting Off Too Easy For “Terrorizing Members Of Congress” Zoe Tillman Īs Congress Starts Investigating Jan.U.S. absolutely insane,” Reeder said at the time. I got gassed several times inside the Capitol, many times outside the Capitol. “Just left the Capitol, I was one of the last people out. In one of the videos that Reeder gave the FBI, he recorded himself narrating his experience, according to a transcript included in his charging papers. Investigators have relied heavily on body camera footage from DC police officers who responded to the riots to build cases against people accused of assaulting officers, but as noted by HuffPost’s Ryan Reilly, US Capitol Police officers didn’t have that equipment. The videos posted by Sedition Hunters didn’t appear to show him holding up his phone. 6, confirming that he went inside the building. However, hours before that hearing, a group of online. Reeder had contacted the FBI in late January and turned over videos and photos he’d recorded in and around the Capitol on Jan. Robert Reeder was scheduled to be sentenced August 18 on one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building. if in fact your client committed or commits such a crime of violence prior to or after the execution of this Agreement.” The agreement states explicitly that the government reserves the right to prosecute Reeder in the future for “any crime of violence. The DOJ says it will instead increase its request for Robert Reeder to serve 6 months, instead of 2 months. It was not immediately clear if the government would consider bringing additional charges against Reeder, or if the original plea deal would stand. The judge said he was “obviously concerned” about the new development because the original evidence in Reeder’s case portrayed him as an “observer” more than a “participant.” Hogan granted the delay request and reset Reeder’s sentencing for Oct.

He said he didn’t think that the new videos would change the ultimate “nature” of their defense. Reeder’s lawyer Robert Bonsib agreed with the plan to push back the sentencing date, suggesting that additional videos might ultimately help his client’s case he did not elaborate on that.
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But once prosecutors learned there were more videos, Rothstein said they decided to ask for a delay to make sure they had all of the relevant evidence and enough time to go through it before figuring out how to proceed. Rothstein said the government initially planned to just revise its sentencing recommendation for Reeder from two months to six months in jail - the maximum penalty allowed for the misdemeanor count he pleaded guilty to - to reflect the more serious conduct depicted in the video. Appearing before US District Judge Thomas Hogan for what was supposed to be Reeder’s sentencing on Wednesday afternoon, Assistant US Attorney Josh Rothstein confirmed that the government had become aware of the new video footage earlier in the day and immediately notified the court and Reeder’s lawyer.
