Weekly January 6th Rioter Roundup: Week of August 1st

      Guy Reffitt, a recruiter for the far-right Three Percenters group and the first Capitol insurrectionist to be convicted at trial, was sentenced to 87 months (7.25 years, or seven years and three months) in prison followed by three years of supervised release and a $2,000 fine for five felony charges, including bringing a gun to Capitol grounds and threatening to kill his own son for turning him in.

     Judge Amit P. Mehta refused to delay the September 26th start date for the trial of the Oath Keepers, including founder and leader Stewart Rhodes, on seditious conspiracy charges.

     John Douglas Wright, a Canton, Ohio, man who organized two charter buses that carried over 100 people to the Capitol, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding and faces a sentencing range of either 15 to 21 months or 41 to 51 months in prison on November 28th, depending on the opinion of a judge.

     Jerod Thomas Bargar, a 36-year-old Centralia, Missouri, man, was arrested on a felony charge and numerous related misdemeanors for bringing an illegal gun in a "We The People" holster to the Capitol and leaving it behind on Capitol grounds.

     William Pope, a Kansas man (and the brother of an Idaho Capitol insurrectionist) who has "very minimal" legal training, was given permission to represent himself at his trial, which is set to take place later this year.

     Jeffrey Schaeffer, a man from Milton, Sussex County, Delaware, who wore a Realtree hat and entered the Capitol through a broken window, spending roughly half an hour inside, pled guilty to a class B misdemeanor count of picketing, parading, or demonstrating in the Capitol building. 

     William Kit, a Washington, D.C. resident and social media influencer with tens of thousands of followers who said he was "willing to die" and January 6th and asked "where the politicians" were on January 6th, was arrested and charged with four misdemeanor counts punishable by up to three years in prison. I hope the DOJ files a superseding indictment: in reality, he is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt of obstruction of Congress for the latter remark he made.

     Athanasios Zoyganeles, the Illinois insurrectionist who filmed a "creepy" video of himself inside the U.S. Capitol, asked to withdraw his guilty plea to a single misdemeanor count of demonstrating in the Capitol and instead face trial on the four misdemeanor counts he was originally charged with, claiming "new evidence" will absolve him of any guilt.

     John Wayne "James" Brooks, a Knoxville, Tennessee, man who wore a tactical vest and a radio inside the Capitol on January 6th and continued to post anti-Biden, anti-vaccine, and other conspiratorial content to his puny group of Facebook followers after the insurrection before being turned in by his sister using a picture of him holding a puppy, pled guilty to a misdemeanor count of parading inside the Capitol.

     Troy Faulkner, who became known for wearing a jacket with his own name on it as well as the name of his company to the insurrection, pleaded guilty to a felony charge of destruction of government property for kicking in a window at the Capitol; he will almost positively face months or even years in prison time when he is sentenced on October 14th.

     Andrew Cavanaugh, a veteran who used his GI Bill and VA loan money to earn a bachelor's degree and buy a home but lost his business after his arrest in the Capitol insurrection, was sentenced to two years of probation with 60 hours of community service and $500 restitution for picketing, parading, and demonstrating in the Capitol.

     Ricky Willden, a Proud Boy whose mother is a drug addict, whose father committed suicide in 2020, whose brother was killed in an accident, who has a history of drug addiction, and who lost his wife and custody of the children they shared (one of whom has autism) after the insurrection, was sentenced to two years in prison with three years of probation and $2,000 restitution for pepper spraying police on January 6th.

     Read last week's January 6th Rioter Roundup here.