A father and son from Utah and Illinois, respectively, have now joined the more than 800 Trump supporters charged by federal authorities for participating in last year’s Capitol riot. The newly charged riot participants are Chicago man Matthew Bokoski and his father, Bradley, who has the same last name. Both face a slew of charges.
Their alleged offenses — all misdemeanors — include disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds; illegally parading, demonstrating, or picketing in any of the Capitol buildings; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and entering and remaining in such a place. Although the offenses are classified as misdemeanors, jail-time is still possible — illegally parading, demonstrating, or picketing at the Capitol comes with up to six months in jail if found guilty. Both Bokoskis apparently face each charge. Neither appear to be accused of directly perpetrating physical violence against law enforcement or anyone else while at the Capitol. They apparently went inside the Capitol at around 2:45 p.m.; inside the building, they followed along with a crowd until that group reached a police line.
After the crowd encountered those police, the duo left the Capitol. Matthew, the younger of the two, was wearing a large Trump flag as a cape while inside of the building. On social media, Matthew appears to have repeatedly admitted to committing the criminal acts for which he’s now been charged. “I was with my dad and walked right up the capital steps and inside with others,” Matthew said at one point.
In other remarks, Matthew said in what sounds like a reference to physical violence at the Capitol: “this all happened before I went up to the capital. So only thing I’m guilty of is trespassing on federal property if you want to get down to it. I kept my distance from police and even thanked them for being out and making sure things don’t get insane.” Well, he’s now been charged with illegally entering and remaining in a restricted building — which sounds like it could be summarized as a federal trespassing offense. He surely didn’t make nabbing him for the charge overly difficult!
Per federal revelations, Matthew and Bradley admitted under questioning they went in the Capitol. Matthew — again just laying it all out there, apparently — characterized events on January 6 as “effective” because Trump supporters “shut down” the government, that same filing recaps. In the time since the riot, just five cases have gone to trial-by-jury, it seems, and in each one of these instances, matters have concluded with a finding of guilty on all counts. One of the most recent trials dealt with Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, a New Jersey man who was in the U.S. Army Reserve at the time of the riot — and has expressed overt sympathy with Nazi causes to the point that he wore a mustache modeled after Adolf Hitler’s distinctive facial hair to work. Hale-Cusanelli argued he didn’t intend to commit obstruction of an official proceeding — a serious felony offense — because he supposedly didn’t know Congress met at the Capitol. Alleged ignorance didn’t spare him from a guilty verdict.
Court has unsealed another father-and-son Jan 6 criminal case
Bradley & Matthew Bokoski
Feds allege Matthew told agents "the January 6, 2021 rally was effective because the participants were able
to “shut down” the government" pic.twitter.com/15XPnXiocI— Scott MacFarlane (@MacFarlaneNews) May 26, 2022
Featured image: Brett Davis, available under a Creative Commons license
