Three men, Patrick Montgomery from Colorado and Brady Knowlton and Gary Wilson from Utah, have been found guilty on charges ranging from felony obstruction to misdemeanor theft, in connection to the Capitol riot of January 6, 2021. The convictions came after a joint session of U.S. Congress was disrupted during the process of certifying the 2020 presidential election results, as reported by the U.S. Department of Justice.
According to facts agreed upon during a bench trial presided over by U.S. District Judge Randolph D. Moss, the trio met on the morning of the insurrection and proceeded to join the chaos at the U.S. Capitol; Montgomery was found guilty of assaulting law enforcement and obstructing an official proceeding, while Knowlton and Wilson faced charges for entering restricted areas, Knowlton also made a statement about electors and pointing fingers at China and the Democratic Party, doing so while knowing, but perhaps not understanding the weight, that his words carried the day's fervor into the annals of history.
The men were caught on the scene, with Montgomery attempting to forcibly take a baton from a police officer and allegedly kicking the officer in the chest. Knowlton and Wilson were accused of remaining in a restricted building, as Wilson also picked up a bag of escape hoods reserved for protecting against smoke or contaminated air. Their actions that day culminated before Judge Moss, with sentencing for the men set for July 2.
Montgomery, Knowlton, and Wilson were arrested by the FBI in the months following the Capitol breach, becoming part of a larger statistic that includes over 1,358 individuals charged for related crimes, the FBI's Denver, Salt Lake City, and Washington Field Offices conducted the investigation with assistance from U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department; all this, while it may not capture the breached walls of the Capitol nor the breached bonds of a nation, it underscores the reach of law and order in the face of unrest, according to the Justice Department.
The case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Counterterrorism Section of the Department of Justice National Security Division, with additional assistance from Colorado and Utah districts, signaling the conclusiveness of one chapter in the ongoing story of January 6, which has yet to fully conclude even as the vestiges of that day continue to shape, challenge, and define the contours of American democracy.
