38-year-old Jesus Rivera, who’s from Pensacola, Florida, was found guilty at the end of last week of four misdemeanor charges stemming from his involvement in last year’s Trump-incited Capitol riot. The charges can still result in jail-time, no matter their status.
Rivera’s offenses include entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building. Rivera was found guilty at what’s known as a bench trial, meaning a judge — in this case, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly — decided his guilt.
Rivera was among the rioters who actually went inside the Capitol as the violence unfolded, and he spent some 20 minutes inside the building that day. Per the government, he posted videos while on the Capitol grounds, and in one noteworthy video, he said: “My birthday is in three days, but I’ll take it as this one. Today is my f—- birthday!” He sounds positively jubilant to be participating in an event connected to a slew of deaths and originally meant to stop the peaceful transfer of presidential power. “Rivera joined rioters outside the Senate Wing Door, as officers struggled to keep the crowd outside,” federal authorities say. “He crawled into the building through a broken window. He continued to record videos as he roamed the hallways, including in the Crypt.” Two of the charges of which he’s been found guilty come with up to one year in prison apiece; the others come with up to six months.
There’s not yet a sentencing date set for Rivera, who’s among hundreds upon hundreds of rioters who have been caught and charged so far — and despite the substantial length of time since the riot originally happened last year, there are still new criminal charges coming out. A Washington father and two sons of his were recently caught and charged; all three subsequently faced a series of seven misdemeanor charges. And the seditious conspiracy charges for individuals involved with the violent, far-right group known as the Proud Boys are also relatively recent. In addition, a pair of rioters from Delaware who are father and son were recently convicted of various charges — including a felony offense apiece — for their involvement in the riot. Both “were part of a larger group of individuals who chased U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman and verbally confronted several U.S. Capitol Police officers near the entrance to the Senate Chambers,” authorities said.
This week, the U.S. House committee investigating the Capitol riot will be holding additional hearings detailing some of their findings for the public. Revelations from previous hearings have already been startling — Trump “placed no call to any element of the U.S. government to instruct that the Capitol be defended,” vice chair Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said at a recent hearing. “He did not call his Secretary of Defense on January 6th. He did not talk to his Attorney General. He did not talk to the Department of Homeland Security. President Trump gave no order to deploy the National Guard that day, and he made no effort to work with the Department of Justice to coordinate and deploy law enforcement assets.”
