Another participant in last year’s Trump-incited assault on the U.S. Capitol has been found guilty, this time by a federal judge, Thomas F. Hogan, who was originally nominated to the federal judiciary by Ronald Reagan.
The newly convicted rioter, Brian Gundersen, was identified by the Justice Department as in his late 20s and hails from a Pennsylvania jurisdiction called State College, which is roughly between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia and features the main campus of Penn State University. Gundersen, who repeatedly entered the Capitol building during last year’s chaos, was charged with felony offenses including obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement. The obstruction charge, which comes with up to 20 years in prison if found guilty (although no rioters have yet received a sentence that long), has repeatedly appeared in the more serious criminal cases arising from the Capitol riot. Evidently a key factor in a conviction under the charge is intent, and Gundersen rather explicitly expressed such a thing.
On social media after the riot, Gundersen proclaimed: “we all stormed the us capital and tried to take over the government.” He’s far from the only participant in the riot to rather gleefully recount their involvement on social media, providing federal prosecutors with leads. As for his assault on officers, which carries a maximum sentence of eight years in prison, he charged at police after twice entering the Capitol but ending up back outside. “He remained on the grounds, however, moving to the Northwest Terrace,” a Justice Department press release says. “There, he joined a mob that was confronting officers trying to clear that area. Gundersen rushed an officer, hitting the officer with his arm.” Another member of law enforcement used a riot shield against Gundersen. Inside the Capitol, Gundersen entered areas including the Senate Parliamentarian’s Office, where he left a mocking note that read: “sowwy for damage.”
He first made it in the building about 30 minutes after the initial breach elsewhere by riot participants. Gundersen will be sentenced in January. In other recent riot-related news, Trump demanded in a Truth Social rant that all those detained in connection to the violence be released. He didn’t distinguish between non-violent and violent offenders or those in pretrial detention and those already sentenced. “Also, start treating the January 6th Protestors fairly,” he said. “Let them all go now!” New arrests have also continued.
Image: Brett Davis/ Creative Commons
