Capitol rioter who entered Senate gets far shorter jail sentence than prosecutors wanted

‘If I had any idea that the protest ... would escalate (the way) it did ... I would never have ventured farther than the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue,’ rioter tells judge

Capitol rioter Paul Allard Hodgkins, who entered the senate chamber during the insurrection, has been sentenced to eight months in prison after prosecutors argued he should have received an 18-month term.

He’s the first to be sentenced for a felony stemming from the Capitol riot.

Hodgkins apologised to the court for his actions and told the judge: “Biden is the rightful president.”

He said he was ashamed of his actions. Speaking with the use of a prepared statement, Hodgkins said he was caught up in the euphoria of the day as he followed a crowd of hundreds who entered the Capitol.

“If I had any idea that the protest ... would escalate (the way) it did ... I would never have ventured farther than the sidewalk of Pennsylvania Avenue,” he told the judge. “This was a foolish decision on my part.”

Prosecutors argued that 38-year-old Hodgkins should spend 18 months in prison, writing in a recent legal filing that he “like each rioter, contributed to the collective threat to democracy” by forcing Congress to postpone their certification of Joe Biden’s election victory, sending lawmakers running for cover to avoid the violent mob.

As he announced the sentence, US District Judge Randolph Moss said Hodgkins had been a part of one of the worst moments in US history, but still handed him a sentence of less than a year in prison.

“That was not, by any stretch of the imagination, a protest,” Judge Moss said, according to the AP. “It was … an assault on democracy.”

“It left a stain that will remain on us … on the country for years to come,” he added.

Hodgkins didn’t say anything about former President Donald Trump during the sentencing. Mr Trump was impeached by the house for inciting the insurrection on 6 January, but he was later acquitted by the Senate.

Hodgkins did community service before his sentencing, according to NBC4. The light punishment comes after he was not accused of assaulting anyone or causing any property damage.

Giving Hodgkins eight months less prison time than federal prosecutors had asked for, the judge referred to Hodgkins’ clear criminal record, that he wasn’t a leader of the mob that laid siege to the Capitol, and that his statement to the court was “sincere”.

The sentence could serve as a benchmark for other cases stemming from the insurrection as defendants decide if they want to go to trial or accept a plea deal.

Hodgkins, along with others who entered the Capitol on 6 January, stands accused of serious crimes but has not been indicted, as some have been, for being a part of larger conspiracies.

Video footage from 6 January shows Hodgkins wearing a Trump 2020 T-shirt inside the senate chamber, carrying a Trump flag, with eye goggles hanging around his neck.

He took a selfie with the so-called QAnon shaman, who entered the Capitol wearing a horned helmet, as well as other rioters on the dais in the chamber.

Last month, Hodgkins pleaded guilty to one count of obstructing an official proceeding.

Before the sentencing, his attorney asked Judge Moss not to give Hodgkins a prison term, arguing that the shame will be connected to his client for the rest of his life and that it should be included in the punishment consideration.

“Whatever punishment this court may provide will pale in comparison to the scarlet letter Mr Hodgkins will wear for the rest of his life,” lawyer Patrick Leduc argued in a recent legal filing.

He was referencing a novel by Nathaniel Hawthorne in which a woman accused of adultery has to wear the letter “A”.

Anna Morgan Lloyd, 49, was the first to be sentenced out of the around 500 people who have been arrested in the wake of the riot. The woman from Indiana pleaded guilty to misdemeanour disorderly conduct and was sentenced to three years’ probation.

The filing by Hodgkins’ lawyer argued that his actions were not that different from that of Lloyd, except that Hodgkins walked onto the floor of the Senate.

Prosecutors acknowledged that he was deserving of some leniency because he quickly took responsibility for his actions – pleading guilty to the charge of obstruction, which has a maximum prison sentence of 20 years.

But Hodgkins getting on a bus in Tampa heading for the 6 January Trump rally in DC carrying a backpack with rope, goggles and latex gloves, was noted as damning by prosecutors. They argued he came to DC prepared to take part in violent actions.

Prosecutors said he walked through the grounds of the Capitol on 6 January, an area already covered in downed barriers and broken windows. He walked past police officers and injured people as the crowd pushed on towards the Capitol, prosecutors noted.

“Time and time again, rather than turn around and retreat, Hodgkins pressed forward,” the legal filing from the government said.

Assistant US Attorney Mona Sedky said that even if Hodgkins didn’t take part in the violence, he was alongside many who did, calling the events “the ransacking of the People’s House”.

She noted that he could see the chaos ahead. “What does he do?” she asked the court. “He walks toward it. He doesn’t walk away.”

She said lawmakers, staffers, and everyone else who had to seek shelter that day will “bear emotional scars for many years – if not forever”.

Mr Leduc said that Hodgkins was someone who, apart from 6 January, followed the law, living in a poorer part of Tampa and volunteering at a food bank, with a past as an Eagle Scout.

The attorney said Hodgkins’ behaviour on 6 January “is the story of a man who for just one hour on one day lost his bearings ... who made a fateful decision to follow the crowd”.

Mr Leduc filed a 33-page document ahead of the sentencing, including several pages about the Civil War, citing Abraham Lincoln calling for reconciliation in the weeks before he was assassinated.

“The court has a chance to emulate Lincoln,” Mr Leduc wrote in the filing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.