Another one of the participants in last year’s Trump-incited attack on the Capitol has been found guilty at a jury trial.
The newly convicted defendant is 47-year-old Michigan man Anthony Robert Williams, and the charges of which he’s been found guilty include obstruction of an official proceeding; 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. The obstruction offense is a felony and comes with up to 20 years in prison if found guilty, although significantly shorter sentences are possible. Williams’s sentencing is scheduled for September 16, 2022.
He signaled his apparent willingness to participate in violence at the Capitol in the weeks before the riot actually unfolded. At one point, he posted on social media he was intending to head to D.C., where he’d “storm the swamp” — which certainly sounds pretty direct. On the day of the riot, Williams was among the first in the Capitol building. “He was in a wave of rioters that entered the Senate Wing door at 2:18 p.m., just five minutes after that door was breached in the first breach of the building by rioters that day. He then went to the Crypt and was close to the front of the line of officers when rioters broke through,” according to the Justice Department. Like other rioters, Williams also filmed himself inside the Capitol building. Eventually, he was among the last riot participants who law enforcement successfully pushed out of the Capitol Rotunda area after he displayed initial resistance.
In case his pre-riot social media rhetoric wasn’t clear enough about his mindset, Williams also proudly spoke months later of his participation in the riot. “I was in the Capitol and have absolutely no remorse or fear in saying or doing it,” he said in April of last year. Will he change his mind when he faces whatever his eventual sentence might be?
Besides the up to 20 years possible with a finding Williams was guilty of the obstruction charge, he’s also facing a combined total of up to three years on the four misdemeanor offenses. Both categories — the felony and misdemeanors — also come with potential financial penalties. Notably, Williams sought at an earlier point in his case to get court approval to travel to Jamaica, where he said he’d visit his girlfriend’s family. Williams’s request was denied. “This Court will not commemorate the one-year anniversary of this attack on the Capitol by granting defendant’s request for non-essential foreign travel when he is awaiting judgment for his actions on that day,” federal Judge Beryl Howell remarked in striking down Williams’s bid.
Meanwhile, individuals involved with the violent, far-right group known as the Oath Keepers recently lost attempts to get seditious conspiracy and obstruction of an official proceeding charges they’re facing dismissed. They also lost in an attempt to move their case out of D.C. and into the Alexandria Division of the Eastern District of Virginia. The judge handling that matter concluded survey data the Oath Keepers’ side presented showing supposed problems with the potential D.C. jury pool for their trial wasn’t as airtight as they claimed.
