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A Washington State man has been sentenced to greater than seven years in jail for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, the place prosecutors mentioned he used a megaphone to induce different rioters to barge via a police line.The person, Taylor James Johnatakis, 40, of Kingston, Wash., was sentenced Wednesday after being convicted final fall of three felony fees — obstruction of an official continuing, interfering with legislation enforcement throughout a civil dysfunction and assaulting legislation enforcement — and 4 misdemeanor fees, in response to the U.S. Lawyer’s workplace for the District of Columbia.Earlier than Jan. 6, Mr. Johnatakis posted quite a few messages on social media expressing his need to intrude with the election certification course of on the Capitol. “That’s why I am going to D.C., to CHANGE the course of HISTORY #stopthesteal,” he wrote in a single put up, in response to the U.S. lawyer’s workplace.Carrying a pink MAGA hat and backpack carrying a megaphone, Mr. Johnatakis led a gaggle of individuals as much as a police line on the Capitol’s Southwest stairs on Jan. 6, urging rioters to “push them out of here,” in response to a courtroom submitting.Officer physique digicam footage confirmed Mr. Johnatakis lifting a steel barricade and pushing it into officers as he led a countdown over his megaphone, “One, two, three, go!”Different footage confirmed Mr. Johnatakis grabbing an officer’s arm.Marc D’Avignon, an officer with the Metropolitan Police Division, testified at Mr. Johnatakis’s trial that the confrontation on the Southwest stairs had been “frightening.”“I thought they were going to come through,” Mr. D’Avignon mentioned. “I thought we were going to be trampled. I thought we were going to be hurt. I thought we were going to die.”After the police secured a fringe across the Capitol within the night on Jan. 6, Mr. Johnatakis recorded movies of himself strolling away and posted them on social media.“I was on the front line,” he mentioned in a single, in response to courtroom data. “I was on the gate. I organized a push up to the Capitol because I felt like that is exactly what we needed.”Prosecutors had requested the choose to condemn Mr. Johnatakis, a self-employed septic techniques installer, to 9 years in jail — longer than federal sentencing pointers — arguing that he performed an outsize position within the riot.“Johnatakis was not just any rioter,” prosecutors mentioned. “He led, organized and encouraged the assault of officers at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.”Forward of the sentencing, U.S. District Choose Royce C. Lamberth acquired about 20 letters from family and friends of Mr. Johnatakis, testifying to his good character, in response to notes that accompanied the sentence.Like a number of different Jan. 6 defendants, Mr. Johnatakis represented himself at trial. Although he expressed contrition within the courtroom, Choose Lamberth mentioned, he had taken a unique tone in speeches, letters and podcast interviews from the District of Columbia Jail, the place he has been held since he was convicted in a jury trial final November.“He changes his story depending on the audience,” Choose Lamberth mentioned, including that “there can be no room in our country for this sort of political violence.”Marie Johnatakis, Mr. Johnatakis’s spouse, mentioned in a cellphone interview from Washington, D.C., on Thursday that the courtroom case had compelled “quite a transition” for the couple and their 5 kids.“He’s actually a really good person,” Ms. Johnatakis, who has been journaling in regards to the expertise on a private web site, mentioned of her husband.“As a nation we’ve been super divided, and we see people as good and bad,” she mentioned, including that “it’s just so important that we see people as humans.”Mr. Johnatakis is certainly one of greater than 1,350 individuals who have been charged in reference to the Jan. 6 assault, wherein indignant demonstrators, urged on by President Donald J. Trump’s lies in regards to the 2020 election being stolen, tried to halt the certification of the outcomes. Federal prosecutors have described the continuing legal investigation into the occasions of that day as the most important within the historical past of the Justice Division.Mr. Trump was indicted final August on fees of plotting to overturn the 2020 election.A March trial date was canceled after an enchantment from Mr. Trump argued that he was immune from prosecution for official acts taken within the White Home. The Supreme Court docket will hear arguments in that case later this month.

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