A participant in the violence at the Capitol of January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to over four years in prison after pleading guilty to a federal criminal charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. The defendant, 64-year-old Matthew Krol, used a baton he’d taken from police against officers — including Aquilino Gonell — multiple times.
Gonell is among the officers from that day who have been outspoken regarding their experiences of threats and actual violence from the Trump-supporting crowds. He is no longer on the force after sustaining serious injuries, including through an evident strike to one of his hands by Krol, who was using the baton he’d taken. Gonell at the time was seeking to assist another officer who was on the ground. Krol’s specific sentence is 51 months in prison to be followed by an even three years of supervised release. He probably secured a significant reduction in the amount of time in prison he was facing by pleading guilty, considering the specific version of the assault on police charge to which he admitted comes with up to 20 years in jail if convicted.
The Justice Department describes Krol as “a self-professed executive officer of the Genesee County, Michigan Volunteer Militia and associate of the Wolverine Watchmen.” Authorities connect that latter group operating in Krol’s state to the widely reported plot to kidnap Michigan Democratic Governor Gretchen Whitmer, who won another four years in office in last year’s midterms. She’d faced obsessive antagonism from the far-right over her policies responding to the COVID-19 pandemic — outrage that even included openly armed individuals showing up at the state Capitol. Then-President Donald Trump also singled her out.
Krol, meanwhile, stood accused of using the stolen baton against at least two other officers in addition to Gonell. The Justice Department’s press release on Krol’s case makes a point of tying him to the outdoor rally featuring Trump himself held in D.C. that day. In the former president’s criminal case covering his attempts to stay in power after the last presidential race despite losing, prosecutors have indicated intentions to, at trial, link individuals who participated in the Capitol attack to the crowds assembled for what culminated in Trump’s speech.
