Paul Allard Hodgkins, a 38-year-old crane operator from Tampa, Fla., was sentenced Monday to eight months in prison for his part in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Hodgkins’ sentencing was the first for a felony in what is expected to be some 600 more for those who breached the Capitol building.
“He was staking a claim on the floor of the United States Senate, not with the American flag but with a flag declaring his loyalty to a single individual over the entire nation,” Judge Randolph Moss of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia said, according to CNN.
“When a mob is prepared to attack the Capitol to prevent elected officials from both parties from performing their constitutional and statutory duty, democracy is in trouble … the damage that they caused that day is way beyond the delays that day. It is a damage that will persist in this country for decades,” Moss said.
“The need to deter others is especially strong in cases involving domestic terrorism, which the breach of the Capitol certainly was,” Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Mona Sedky said before the sentencing, according to the Washington Post.
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Hodgkins was identified from videos and photo taken inside the Capitol and later admitted to being there when questioned by the FBI.
He told investigators he took a bus from Tampa to Washington, D.C., to take part in the riot. Hodgkins could face 15 to 21 months in prison and a fine between $7,500 and $75,000, as well as be required to pay $2,000 in restitution.
Prosecutors from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia were requesting a mid-range sentence.
Clad in a “Trump 2020” T-shirt Hodgkins carried a Trump flag into the well of the Senate.
He was charged with a series of crimes, including those directly related to the fact they occurred in the Capitol building. He pleaded guilty last week to a single count of obstruction.
Sedky wrote Hodgkin’s actions were “calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion” and eligible to be considered or a domestic terror enhancement that could have doubled his sentence.
However, prosecutors decided not to seek an enhancement for domestic terrorism despite recent comments from FBI Director Christopher Wray.
“That attack, that siege, was criminal behavior, plain and simple, and it’s behavior that we, the FBI, view as domestic terrorism,” Wray said, according to the Washington Post.
Wray also told the Senate that since the attack the violent extremism on Jan. 6 has been “metastasizing” in the country.
The case is being seen as a test for the others being charged for their actions on that day. Hodgkins stormed the Capitol along with some 800 others Jan. 6.
His is one of 500 indictments brought so far. Additional charges are expected for 100 other rioters who participated.
Last week, prosecutors asked charges against New York resident Chris Kelly, who was similarly charged with obstruction.
Hodgkins is only the second to plead guilty to charges from the riot. Jon Schaffer, a member of Oath Keepers, is the other.
The first sentencing came in June for misdemeanor trespass.
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“Hodgkins’ sentencing was the first for a felony in what is expected to be some 600 more for those who breached the Capitol building.”
The Dems’ new legal and investigative spectacle. One would think that the Capitol building and grounds would have the utmost in security—the highest of anywhere in the country. So, this “breaching the Capitol”—the “attack on the Capitol”—the “insurrection” smacks of a staged operation —a political strategy designed to create a false narrative. I cannot imagine being able to just walk onto the grounds and into that building like I would walk in to Walmart. This is as phony as hell.
“When a mob is prepared to attack the Capitol to prevent elected officials from both parties from performing their constitutional and statutory duty, democracy is in trouble … the damage that they caused that day is way beyond the delays that day. It is a damage that will persist in this country for decades,” Moss said. Yeah, because just like Russia collusion, the Mueller investigation, Impeachments 1 and 2—the Dems have too many drama queens who want to create a soap opera in DC rather than do their jobs. This whole thing is a farce.
SINCE we have ample evidence via dozens of videos, OF THE COPS ACTUALLY OPENING THE DOORS To let folks in. HOW the hell can ANYONE be found guilty of ‘trespassing’?? SINCE IF THEY ARE BEING LET IN, that gives them permission to BE THERE!
I think all liberals should be convicted as felons, as they are Marxists!
Problem is, WHO THE HELL will arrest them, LET ALONE convict them??
THEY CONTROL the FBI
They control the dept of injustice
They pretty much control the military now days.
SO WHO IS LEFT, to actually HOLD THEM TO justice!?!?!?
that house belongs to we the people not the marxist who inhabit it.
the left using gestapo tactics on american citizens is a felony that house and all government buildings were bought and paid for by the american taxpayer,they belong to us.
But it’s OK for BLM “protesters” to loot and burn half the country down, a lot of it on film, hundreds identified, but most, of course, had the charges suddenly dropped, no penalties at all. But they’ll throw the book at all those evil “white anarchists”.
After all, they dared to oppose the lying, cheating dem-rats.
I gotta say, the dem-rats are really trying hard to “unite the country”.
Six months in, and the the country is more divided than it’s been since The Civil War.
Don’t forget ALL THE TIMES BLM< flat out invaded court houses/city government legislature buildings, across the nation, and in a # OF CASES< OCCUPIED THEM FOR DAYS, after FORCING those legislatures who were IN those court houses or govt buildings..
WHY WAS NONE OF THEM Ever arrested..
OH YEA..
CAUSE WE conservatives are guilty of ANYTHING THE DEMS WANT, but dems, antifa and BLM are NEVER GUILTY of anything, even when there is PROOF OF IT!
SINCE as per news from this evenings Tucker, the FBI arresting of that group in michigan for the ‘attempt to kidnap Wichmer’, was a FBI FALSE FLAG operation, and there’s reports it could ALSO HAVE BEEN done for the sixth “Insurrection”, i certainly HOPE ALL OF THE OTHERS arrested, have their lawyers look into, seeing whether the FBI SET THIS WHOLE shebang up!!!