A Tennessee man (who has seemingly moved) who hilariously claimed during trial that climbing walls, like he did at the Capitol, was actually pretty normal where he lived — as though Tennesseans don’t favor doors for getting inside buildings, or something — got four years on Friday.
Matthew Bledsoe was convicted by a jury in late July of criminal charges including the felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding, which prosecutors have repeatedly used in cases related to the Capitol violence. Prosecutors originally sought 70 months in prison for Bledsoe, which is nearly six years. As reported on this site, Bledsoe argued at trial that he didn’t actually know Congress was conducting the certification of the outcome of the 2020 presidential election when he participated in the Capitol rampage, even though he filmed himself asking for the location of “those pieces of shit” — with evidence clearly suggesting he was referring to members of Congress. That lack of foreknowledge would have undercut the intent required for the obstruction charge under relevant legal standards, but the jury didn’t buy it.
The same defense has been used in other court proceedings. Convicted New Jersey man Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who besides his participation in the Capitol riot is a Nazi sympathizer to the point he modeled his facial hair after Hitler’s distinctive appearance, also claimed he was unaware Congress would be meeting in the building. Despite the defendant’s ideology, Trump hosted his so-called adoptive aunt at a Pennsylvania rally, spotlighting his case. The woman who spoke there leads a fundraising organization advocating on behalf of Capitol riot defendants. At trial, Bledsoe also said where he resided was “quite a bit different” than D.C., adding he often climbed walls. His defense wanted just a year in prison, meaning what he actually received — 48 months followed by three years of supervised release alongside $2,000 in restitution and a fine of $2,000 — significantly surpasses the level of punishment for which his defense was aiming.
Bledsoe specifically claimed at trial his reference to “pieces of shit” wasn’t about Congress. Rather, he said he was talking about those he believed were responsible for imaginary systematic election fraud. Why would they have been in D.C. if they weren’t officials in the government? It was well-established Congress would be certifying the election outcome. “When prosecutors confronted him with a text he sent to his wife, saying it was “good” that someone planted bombs near the Capitol, Bledsoe said he really didn’t mean “good,”” NBC reported in July — so yeah, his trial didn’t go very well for him. Bledsoe called himself a “loudmouth” during trial, at least during critical periods under scrutiny, but even people known as loudmouths don’t normally scale a wall outside the Capitol, enter the building, climb a statue, and yell. “You do not ‘storm’ somewhere you have a right to be. I don’t ‘storm’ my friend’s house when I go over for dinner,” a prosecutor said at Bledsoe’s July trial. “He said he stormed the Capitol, and he meant it.”
