A participant in the Trump-incited attack on the Capitol last year who joined in the infamous chase of Capitol Police officer Eugene Goodman soon after the violence spilled inside the building was sentenced in D.C. federal court this week to 38 months, or a little over three years, in prison.
Prosecutors had asked for nearly four years in prison for the rioter, Joshua Calvin Hughes, who participated in the riot and was later criminally charged for it alongside his brother Jerod, whose sentencing is scheduled for early next year on the two-year anniversary of the riot. Both Hughes brothers pleaded guilty to a charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, which is a felony offense that has repeatedly come up in criminal cases related to the riot. Although Goodman initially led participants in the mob away from the Senate chamber while lawmakers remained inside, both Hughes brothers later made it inside the chamber where members of the body and the then-Vice President had recently been dealing with the certification of the 2020 presidential election results, meaning Biden’s win.
Both Hughes brothers were among the very first participants in the Capitol chaos who made it inside the building, which they entered through a broken window. It was around half an hour later when they entered the Senate chamber. “By approximately 2:48 p.m., they entered the Senate Chamber, among the first rioters there. They walked among the senators’ desks for approximately two minutes and then left the Capitol Building,” the Justice Department notes. Goodman has stayed largely out of the public spotlight as the country has grappled with the fallout from the Capitol attack, although he has spoken in court proceedings related to the incident. Both Hughes brothers, who are in their upper 30s, were arrested in early February of last year back in Montana.
In other news related to the riot, Pennsylvania woman Riley Williams, who is 23 years old, was convicted of several charges this week, including two felonies that related both to her obstruction of officers during a civil disorder and more directly to her confrontations with police. She was put into custody ahead of her sentencing amid concerns about the possibility she wouldn’t return and the seriousness of her original offenses. She was among the riot participants who entered Capitol offices for Nancy Pelosi, among other actions. Trump has called for all those detained in connection to the violence to be released.
