This week, federal Judge Christopher Cooper sentenced Capitol riot participant Richard Michetti to nine months in prison after Michetti pleaded guilty to a single felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding.
Prosecutors are using that charge against a wide range of participants in the Capitol violence. Although other charges like criminal trespassing were dropped in apparent connection to his plea deal, Michetti was never charged with perpetrating physical violence against police at the Capitol, but while there last year, he went inside the building, and Justice Department prosecutors are focusing in large part on individual riot participants who assaulted police or actually entered the Capitol. Obstruction of an official proceeding can carry a much longer prison sentence. In this case, federal prosecutors wanted 18 months in prison for Michetti, citing his insistence on staying in the Capitol even after police hit him — twice — with chemical irritants meant as crowd control measures amid attempts to stop the rampaging mob from advancing. Prosecutors also noted that Michetti was encouraging towards other rioters as the assault unfolded, pushing fellow mob participants to confront police.
During the Capitol violence, Michetti texted with a now former girlfriend, who he said was a “moron” if she didn’t believe the 2020 presidential election was somehow rigged (a belief the woman didn’t hold). The individual with whom Michetti was in discussion via text later alerted authorities to him. A statement of offense to which Michetti agreed in connection to his guilty plea includes a series of texts he sent his now former girlfriend throughout the day on January 6 last year. Not long after finally leaving the Capitol, Michetti was still defending actions he took in those text conversations. Excerpts of the chats that are available in the court document indicate the woman with whom he was speaking was pushing back on the defendant’s claims.
Michetti, who is from Pennsylvania and was arrested in February 2021, is among the rioters who attended Trump’s outdoor rally in D.C. on January 6 before heading to the Capitol that afternoon. “Gotta stop the vote it’s fraud this is our country,” Michetti said in one of his texts. That message seems like a clearly established outline of the kind of intent that underlies becoming guilty of perpetrating obstruction of an official proceeding. He said it right there — that’s what he sought to do: “stop the vote.”
Image: Brett Davis/ Creative Commons
