Capitol rioter gets eight months in prison in first felony sentencing from January 6 attack

A Florida man who waved a “Trump 2020” flag on the floor of the Senate Chamber on January 6 was sentenced to eight months in prison on Monday – the first time a Capitol riot defendant has been convicted of a crime.

Paul Hodgkins, a 38 year old crane operator, pleaded guilty pending an official process obstruction count last month, admitting that he took a selfie and joined a group of rioters who gathered outside the Senate Chamber to prevent certification of the 2020 presidential election.

Announcing the verdict – which was less than the 15 to 21 months recommended when Hodgkins pleaded guilty – Judge Randolph Moss called the attack on the Capitol “an attack on democracy,” but said that Hodgkins’ lack of A criminal record and willingness to take responsibility are justified in the lower sentence. Hodgkins’ eight-month prison sentence is followed by two years of supervised release.

His verdict could signal possible penalties for other Capitol riot defendants. Prosecutors said earlier this month that nearly 235 were accused calculated with the same crime that Hodgkins pleaded guilty to. “It looks like the whole nation is tune in,” Hodgkins attorney Patrick LeDuc told CBS News on Saturday during a phone interview.

Prosecutors said Paul Hodgkins, 38, waved a “Trump 2020” flag and took a selfie in the Senate Chamber.

Ministry of Justice

LeDuc asked the court to sentence Hodgkins to house arrest only, but prosecutors ordered the federal judge to sentence Hodgkins to 18 months in prison. In a conviction memorandum filed last week, US Attorney’s Special Assistant Mona Sedky stressed the need to “consider the extent of what the insurrection brought and meant”.

Sedky noted that Hodgkins stepped into the Senate Chamber during a “violent uprising that spanned the entire Capitol” that injured more than 100 law enforcement officers and threatened the peaceful transfer of power after the presidential election.

Attack on the US Capitol

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“The rule of law was not only disregarded, it was attacked that day,” wrote Sedky. “A lower sentence would suggest to the public in general, and other rioters in particular, that attempts to obstruct an official process are not being taken seriously.”

Sedky admitted that Hodgkins had taken “significant steps” towards rehabilitation and that he was not personally involved in violence or property destruction that day, but she wrote that the government could not ignore the gravity of his crime.

“The need to deter others is particularly strong in domestic terrorism cases, which the Capitol breach certainly was,” she wrote.

Capitol rioter gets 8 months in prison

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Unlike other Capitol Riot criminal cases, prosecutors did not accuse Hodgkins of commissioning a “Crimes of terrorism, “but they compared his behavior to that of a local terrorist and wrote that it included” intimidation or coercion “aimed at influencing government behavior.

LeDuc rejected the idea that the January 6th events amounted to domestic terrorism. “That was a bridge too far for me,” he said, adding that events that day included a protest that got out of hand.

In a court filing last week, LeDuc compared the pursuit of the January 6th events to the post-civil war period.

“Today the country is as divided as it was in the 1850s. But today this dish has the chance to make a difference,” wrote LeDuc. “We have a chance to be as Lincoln hoped, to exercise grace and charity, and to restore healing to those who seek forgiveness.”

To date, nearly 20 Capitol rioters have pleaded guilty and two have been convicted of offenses: One, Anna Morgan-Lloyd, was sentenced to three years probation and no jail sentence, and another, Michael Curzio, was sentenced to six months in prison, although the courts credit him for the nearly six months he had already been jailed while he waited for the courts to take his case listen.

Those who plead guilty will face a variety of recommended sentences as a result of their indictment – a reminder of the varied allegations against the Capitol defendants, some of whom were charged only with misconduct, while others were charged with alleged assault on officers, conspiracy and gun crimes.

A defendant Josiah Colt, pleaded guilty to the same disability allegations as Hodgkins, but faces a recommended sentence of 51 months to 63 months, more than three times the Hodgkins original recommended sentence.

Unlike Hodgkins, Colt has been accused of bringing a warehouse of guns and ammunition to DC and has agreed to work with prosecutors in bringing cases against two co-conspirators.

During a statement read in court on Monday, Hodgkins said he felt remorse and shame for entering the Capitol that day. “If I had any idea that the Capitol protests were escalating the way they did, or that the charges are what I’ve seen since then,” he said, “I would never have ventured further than the sidewalk Pennsylvania Avenue. “

Hodgkins said that although his involvement was not involved in violence or theft, it still contributed to the “bigger problem that was taking place.” He said, “I have also thought at times that the society of us, who have remained calmer when we protested, encouraged others to carry out the destruction that has occurred.”

Hodgkins said he has volunteered at an animal shelter and food bank, joined a church, and been vaccinated against COVID-19 for more than 100 hours since his arrest.

“Also,” he said, “I want to state that I fully recognize and accept that Joseph R. Biden Jr. is respectfully and legitimately the President of the United States.”

In announcing his decision, Moss cited the fact that Hodgkins was standing next to the US Senate podium hoisting a “Trump 2020” flag. The symbolism of this act, said Moss, was “unmistakable”. Hodgkins had made a claim in the United States Senate, “not with the American flag,” said Moss, but with a flag that declared his loyalty to “an individual to a nation.”

Moss said, “This act captured the threat to democracy that we all faced that day.”