Facing jail time and terrible personal repercussions for assaulting the U.S. Capitol, some Jan. 6 defendants are seeking to profit from their role in the tragic riot, using it as a platform to drum up funds, promote business efforts and build social media profiles.
A Nevada man incarcerated on riot charges encouraged his mother to contact publishers for a book he was writing about “the Capitol event.” A rioter from Washington state helped his father market shirts and other items carrying slogans such as “Our House” and photographs of the Capitol building. A Virginia guy created a rap CD with riot-themed lyrics and a cover shot showing him sitting on a police van outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Those acts are often complicated things for convicts when they face courts at sentencing as prosecutors refer to the profit-chasing activities in seeking stiffer sentences. The Justice Department, in certain cases, is seeking to recover back money that rioters have profited off the rebellion.
In one instance, federal prosecutors have recovered tens of thousands of dollars from a defendant who sold his film from Jan. 6. In another example, a Florida man’s plea agreement authorizes the U.S. government to take revenues from any book he gets published over the following five years. And prosecutors want a Maine man who collected more than $20,000 from supporters to relinquish part of the money since a taxpayer-funded public defender is defending him.
Many rioters have paid a hefty personal price for their conduct on Jan. 6. At sentencing, rioters typically argue for mercy on the basis that they already have endured significant penalties for their actions.
They lost jobs or whole careers. Marriages broke apart. Friends and family avoided them or even denounced them to the FBI. Strangers have given them nasty letters and internet threats. And they have built up hefty legal expenses to defend themselves against federal allegations ranging from misdemeanors to major crimes.
Websites and crowdfunding websites put up to gather contributions for Capitol riot defendants aim to depict them as mistreated patriots or even political prisoners.
An anti-vaccine medical practitioner who pled guilty to unlawfully entering the Capitol formed a foundation that earned more than $430,000 for her legal fees. The fundraising campaign by Dr. Simone Gold’s nonprofit, America’s Frontline Doctors, didn’t disclose her guilty plea, prosecutors said.
Misinformation Disbelief
Rioters wave flags on the West Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Before sentencing Gold to two months behind bars, U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper termed it “unseemly” because her foundation referenced the Capitol disturbance to solicit money that also paid for her pay. Prosecutors claimed in court filings that it was impossible to think she expended anything close to $430,000 in legal expenditures for her minor case.
Another rioter, a New Jersey gym owner who assaulted a police officer during the siege, received more than $30,000 in online contributions for a “Patriot Relief Fund” to meet his mortgage payments and other monthly obligations. Prosecutors mentioned the fund in proposing a fine for Scott Fairlamb, who is serving a jail term of more than three years.
“Fairlamb should not be allowed to ‘capitalize’ on his role in the Capitol breach in this manner,” Justice Department attorneys said.
Robert Palmer, a Florida man who assaulted police officers at the Capitol, urged a buddy to establish a crowdfunding campaign for him online after he pled guilty. After viewing the campaign to “Help Patriot Rob,” a probation officer calculating a sentence recommendation for Palmer didn’t give him credit for taking responsibility for his behavior. Palmer agreed that a post for the campaign incorrectly characterized his actions on Jan. 6. Acceptance of responsibility may help trim months or even years off a sentence.
“When you threw the fire extinguisher and the board at the police officers, were you acting in self-defense?” said U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan.
“No, ma’am, I was not,” Palmer answered before the court sentenced him to more than five years in jail.
The Patriot Freedom Project claims to have generated over $1 million in donations and disbursed over $665,500 in grants and legal expenses to families of Capitol riot offenders.
A New Jersey-based foundation affiliated with the organization submitted an application for tax-exempt status to the IRS in April. As of early August, the foundation is not included in an IRS database as a tax-exempt entity. The IRS application for the Hughes Foundation states that its donations would “primarily” aid the families of Jan. 6 defendants, with around 60% of contributed dollars going to foundation operations. The remainder will support administration and fundraising costs, including wages, according to the report.
The rioters have discovered other means to gain or advance themselves.
Prosecutors alleged that Jeremy Grace, who was sentenced to three weeks in jail for entering the Capitol, attempted to profit from his participation by assisting his father in selling T-shirts, baseball caps, water bottles, decals, and other merchandise with phrases such as “Our House” and “Back the Blue” and images of the Capitol.
Grace’s “audacity” to sell “Back the Blue” merchandise is “particularly troubling,” according to prosecutors, since he saw other rioters assault police officers on January 6. However, a defense attorney said that Grace did not violate any laws or gain any money by assisting his father in selling the products.
The federal government confiscated more than $62,000 from the bank account of riot defendant John Earle Sullivan, a Utah man who made more than $90,000 by selling video footage from January 6 to at least six firms. The attorney for Sullivan contended that officials had no authority to take the money.
Richard “Bigo” Barnett, an Arkansas man who was photographed with his feet propped up on a desk in the office of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, charged $100 for images depicting him with his feet propped up on a desk while under house arrest. Joseph McBride, the defense attorney, stated that prosecutors have “zero grounds” to prevent Barnett from raising funds for his defense prior to the December trial date.
McBride wrote in a court filing that, “unlike the government, Mr. Barnett does not have the American taxpayer footing the bill for his legal case.”
During and after the disturbance, Jennifer Leigh Ryan, a real estate salesperson in Texas, boasted on social media that she was the best in the area “becoming renowned.
” In texts exchanged after January 6, Ryan “considered the business she would need to prepare for as a consequence of the attention she earned for joining the Capitol mafia,” according to court papers filed by prosecutors.
Prosecutors recommended a two-month prison sentence for Treniss Evans III, the Texas man who drank a shot of whiskey in a congressional conference room on January 6. They cited his social media activities as justification. Evans “aggressively abused” his appearance in the Capitol to increase his social media following on Gettr, a social media platform owned by a former Trump advisor, prosecutors said ahead of Evans’ sentence on Tuesday.
A few rioters are producing books about the mob’s assault and selling footage they filmed during the conflict.
A peculiar clause in Adam Johnson’s plea bargain authorizes the U.S. government to collect revenues from any book he publishes during the following five years. After the brawl, images of Johnson posing with Pelosi’s podium went viral. After discovering that Johnson wants to publish a memoir of “some type,” prosecutors claimed they insisted on the condition.
A Nevada man accused with assaulting cops near Senate gallery doors, Ronald Sandlin, stated on Facebook that he was “negotiating a Netflix deal” to sell riot video footage. Later, during a phone call from jail, Sandlin informed his mother that he had met with the conservative author and filmmaker Dinesh D’Souza and was in contact with the podcaster Joe Rogan. According to prosecutors, he allegedly instructed his mother to contact publishers for the book he was writing on the “Capitol event.”
“I aim to convert it into a movie,” Sandlin responded through text message in March 2021. “I want to have Leonardo DiCaprio portray me,” he said, adding an emoji of a smiling face.