Capitol riot victims recount their experiences forward of Oath Keepers seditious conspiracy sentencing

A number of regulation enforcement officers and two US Capitol workers members stood earlier than a federal decide in Washington, DC, on Wednesday and recounted their terror as a mob breached the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as a number of Oath Keepers members are set to be sentenced for seditious conspiracy.

Metropolitan Police Officer Christopher Owens, US Capitol Police Particular Agent David Lazarus, USCP Officer Harry Dunn, former Senate Chamber Assistant Regina Brown and Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s chief of workers Terri McCullough, testified how the riot modified them and spoke of their lasting bodily and psychological scars.

“They selected to be part of a bunch that surrounded us, taunted us,” mentioned Owens, who had been in a hallway outdoors the Senate chamber, recounting being overwhelmed, spat on, and the way a rioter tried to drag his service weapon out of its holster.

By way of tears, Owens recalled coming residence to his spouse and teenage daughter after the hourslong battle on the Capitol, and the way his spouse burst out crying when she noticed his “bruised, bloody and battered” physique.

“My bodily scars, bruises and wounds have healed, however my psychological trauma haunts me to this present day,” Owens mentioned.

The statements are part of a weekslong course of by which a number of members of the far-right Oath Keepers will face sentencing for his or her convictions associated to the US Capitol riot. Prosecutors have requested for harsh jail sentences for every of the 9 defendants starting from 10 to 25 years.

The primary sentencing listening to, for militia chief Stewart Rhodes, convicted of seditious conspiracy, is scheduled for Thursday.

Rhodes and Florida Oath Keepers chief Kelly Meggs had been convicted of a number of fees together with seditious conspiracy in November for what prosecutors known as a plot to maintain then-President Donald Trump in energy after the 2020 election.

Jessica Watkins, Thomas Caldwell and Kenneth Harrelson had been acquitted of the sedition cost throughout that trial however convicted of different fees, together with obstructing an official continuing.

In January, 4 extra Oath Keepers members and associates – Roberto Minuta, Joseph Hackett, David Moerschel and Edward Vallejo – had been convicted of seditious conspiracy and different fees.

Dunn has been outspoken about his expertise on January 6, saying that he now retains his “head on a swivel” in public and feels anxious “every time I see somebody in cargo pants or something remotely associated to tactical gear.”

The USCP emotional assist canine, Lila, was within the courtroom and adopted Dunn out after his testimony.

David Lazarus, who rescued workers members barricaded contained in the Capitol through the riot, recounted “the harm” on the faces of congressional staffers as he escorted them to security, saying their expressions had been “burned into my mind without end.”

“The violence that the rioters dropped at the Capitol by no means ended for many people, Lazarus mentioned, including that the trauma had “reached into our properties, our private lives, and our family members.”

After Lazarus completed his assertion, District Decide Amit Mehta thanked him for his “heroism on January 6.”

Wednesday’s listening to came about within the ceremonial courtroom of Washington, DC’s federal court docket as a substitute of Mehta’s regular courtroom so that every one 11 protection legal professionals, 5 prosecutors and a number of other of the defendants may match.

The 4 defendants within the courtroom – Rhodes, Meggs, Watkins and Harrelson – sat behind their legal professionals in orange jumpsuits. The 4 took notes and watched every sufferer assertion intently, although at instances they shook their heads or sighed loudly when their conduct was mentioned.

Mehta additionally rejected a plea from militia members to put aside the jury’s verdict.

In an in depth ruling that lasted for greater than an hour, Mehta mentioned that the Oath Keepers had been clearly a “extremely coordinated group” who spoke of “warfare, loss of life” and violence towards the federal government.

Defendants who weren’t current within the courtroom – Minuta, Caldwell, Hackett, Moerschel and Vallejo – appeared on the listening to by a videocall projected on a big display screen on the entrance of the courtroom.

Mehta additionally heard from two ladies who labored within the Capitol on January 6 and who ran from the mob after the constructing was breached.

Regina Brown, a 21-year-old faculty senior, mentioned she had been honored when she was supplied the possibility to hold the licensed Electoral Faculty vote certificates from the Home chamber to the Senate chamber on January 6, 2021.

{A photograph} of Brown, who was a school sophomore on January 6 and was working as a chamber assistant, and a second ladies standing on both finish of a giant field and strolling by the Senate rotunda went viral on-line after the riot unfolded.

“I had no concept that by early afternoon I might be sprinting down the underground hallway,” Brown mentioned. As she ran, Brown mentioned she “kicked my sneakers off, considering I may run quicker in my tights” and was “praying to God I wouldn’t encounter any insurrectionists.”

McCullough, then-Pelosi’s chief of workers, instructed Mehta she was devastated to be taught that “rioters got here deliberately to our workplaces to hunt for the speaker.”

“Lots of our workers – my colleagues, my buddies – hid in a convention room … all as a result of they selected public service,” she mentioned.

When she returned to the workplace that night, McCullough mentioned she discovered “Accomplice flags and zip ties” sprawled across the workplace.

Because the daylong listening to wrapped up, Mehta opened to door to the likelihood that he would apply enhanced terrorism penalties for some or all the Oath Keepers defendants.

“My preliminary ideas are (the improved terrorism penalty) does apply,” Mehta mentioned Wednesday. “It’s laborious to say it doesn’t apply when somebody is convicted of seditious conspiracy.”

Prosecutors cited the improved terrorism penalties when asking for prolonged jail phrases for every defendant, writing that “right here, the necessity to deter others is particularly robust as a result of these defendants engaged in acts that had been meant to affect the federal government by intimidation or coercion—in different phrases, terrorism.”

The Justice Division has beforehand sought the identical enhancement in different January 6-related circumstances, although judges have thus far refused to use it. Mehta, nevertheless, mentioned that that is “completely different” than these different circumstances.

Mehta will rule in a while whether or not the improved penalties apply to every of the person 9 defendants, and the way they modify a possible sentence, at every defendant’s sentencing listening to over the following two weeks.