A Connecticut man identified by federal authorities as 22 years old admitted this week to a felony criminal charge of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers in connection to the 2021 Capitol riot that disrupted Congress’ scheduled certification of the 2020 presidential election results. Precedent suggests the defendant could end up with years in prison once sentenced.
Defendant Benjamin Cohen reportedly joined confrontations with police officers at the Capitol building’s Lower West Terrace tunnel, which was a structure associated with construction for the then-upcoming presidential inauguration that put Joe Biden in the presidency. Cohen participated in what federal authorities recapped as “heave-ho” efforts in which a crowd of rioters gathered there moved their bodies back and forth in unison in an attempt to force their way through the police line.
“At about 2:56 p.m., a rush of additional rioters entered the Tunnel behind him and the mob—including Cohen—engaged in another “heave-ho” effort by moving their bodies in unison back and forth,” says a federal press release issued this week.
The document also says that Cohen was present for other serious affronts against police, watching “as rioters shined strobe lights at officers, threw objects at officers,” and more, authorities said in the release. And as the violence developed, he was reportedly among the Capitol riot participants to enter the building itself, venturing inside through a broken window.
Cohen’s sentencing is currently scheduled for November of this year — the same month as the next presidential election. One of the major candidates for that election, Donald Trump, has repeatedly proposed legal assistance including presidential pardons for Capitol riot defendants in the event that he makes it back into office, sometimes failing to distinguish at all between defendants accused of violence and those facing other charges when putting out such proposals.
