53-year-old Bradley Rukstales has now become one of the latest Trump insurrectionists to plead guilty after participating in the Capitol riot. At the Capitol, Rukstales — who was the CEO of a tech company at the time but has since been fired in connection to his involvement in the riot — hurled a chair in the direction of officers, although the chair apparently didn’t hit anyone, with Rukstales also claiming that he was “very careful when [he] was with the chair to make sure that nobody was [within] striking distance.”
During a Tuesday plea hearing, Assistant U.S. Attorney Susan Lehr outlined, however, how Rukstales wasn’t merely swept up in the day’s events. He traveled all the way from Illinois for the rally where Trump delivered a speech that immediately preceded the storming of the Capitol. As summarized by Law & Crime, the prosecutor did note, however, that no one at the Capitol was “in danger” of getting struck when Rukstales threw that chair. Specifically, Rukstales has pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing inside of the Capitol building.
Earlier this year, Variety reported that Cogensia — from which Rukstales was fired — “specializes in providing data-driven marketing services to the restaurant and highway toll-collection industries.” Now, he faces up to six months in prison for the federal misdemeanor charge to which he’s now pleaded guilty. Rukstales apparently previously pleaded not guilty to all charges against him back in March before more recently changing his tune. His other charges, which have seemingly been dropped as part of the plea deal, included violent entry and disorderly conduct at the Capitol building. Rukstales expressed remorse for his actions earlier this year, characterizing his entering of the Capitol building as “a moment of extremely poor judgment.”
Rukstales also said, more directly, that his choice to go inside of the Capitol during the unrest was “wrong,” and he said that he was “deeply regretful to have done so.” He added that his actions that day constituted “the single worst decision of [his] life.” Rukstales is one of hundreds of Trump supporters who’ve been charged by federal authorities after participating in the riot, with plenty of proceedings still ongoing, no matter the spate of plea deals. Outside of these proceedings, Trump and certain allies of his have continued to feverishly promote the lie that last year’s presidential election was somehow rigged for Biden, and this exact claim is what inspired the riot.
The House committee investigating the violence has issued a slew of document requests, seeking materials from government agencies relating to Trump’s efforts to undercut the election results. The panel has also asked telecommunications companies to preserve records for Trump and certain allies of his.
