Cop Assaulting Insurrectionist Faces 15 Years After Getting Caught By Feds

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A California resident named Kim Michael Sorgente has become one of the latest Trump supporters to be apprehended by federal authorities for their role in the violence at the Capitol on January 6. It’s notable that new arrests continue to be made months after the initial incident, making it clear that federal investigators have no intention of simply letting the crimes committed at the Capitol that day slide. Sorgente, who is accused of spending hours fighting with officers on the Capitol grounds, faces up to 15 and a half years behind bars if convicted of all the charges with which he’s now been hit, as explained by the Los Angeles Daily News.

For now, Sorgente — unlike other Capitol riot defendants — has been released from custody as he awaits trial, with his next court appearance apparently set for early next month. At the Capitol, Sorgente bellowed through a megaphone that the law enforcement personnel trying to defend the Capitol that day were “traitors.” (Obviously, such was not the case.) After that incident, Sorgente “was seen approaching the inauguration platform with hundreds of other people, continuing to move toward the Capitol Building as a voice over a loudspeaker instructed them that they were entering a restricted area,” the Daily News explains, and he eventually arrived at the tunnel where presidents-elect walk to the stage for their inauguration — which is where he fought with cops.

Amid the violence in the tunnel, Sorgente at one point used a police riot shield to push someone in front of him towards police officers. He was also in the area when Rosanne Boyland, who died, was struggling amid the crowd. In footage from the event, Sorgente can be heard shouting to “Get her up. Get her up, please.” Boyland’s cause of death was determined to have been an amphetamine overdose.

Now, Sorgente’s charges include obstructing police officers during a riot, entering a restricted building, and disorderly conduct inside a restricted building. The lack of a charge for assaulting officers seems to reflect that he apparently didn’t directly assault law enforcement during the riot, although many others that day did so. Notably, though, Sorgente is also facing other criminal proceedings connected to allegedly hitting someone with a megaphone at a post-election rally in support of Trump in California. He’s facing two counts of assault with a deadly weapon in California in connection to that incident.