Anthony Mastanduno, a 61-year-old man from Rutherford County, North Carolina, was handed a prison sentence for his involvement in the violent events at the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021. U.S. District Judge Tanya S. Chutkan sentenced Mastanduno to a term of 57 months, following his guilty plea on six felony charges including civil disorder and assaulting law enforcement with a dangerous weapon, as published in a statement by the Department of Justice yesterday.
According to the DOJ, Mastanduno's felonious actions included forcefully entering the Capitol and engaging in violent confrontations with police officers defending the legislative complex; he utilized makeshift weapons like a flagpole to spear towards a police line and a baton to strike at officers, he also deployed a stolen police shield to push against these defenders, these details were documented in the court proceedings. After his aggressive involvement at the mouth of the Tunnel, a location which witnessed some of the day’s harshest clashes, he retreated upon being hit by a chemical irritant.
The prosecution of this case was carried out by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice's Counterterrorism Section, with additional support from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of North Carolina. With a collaborative effort from the FBI's offices in Charlotte, New York, and Washington along with local police departments, Mastanduno was identified and consequently apprehended on August 23, 2023, following the events.
More than 1,450 individuals have faced charges in relation to the Capitol breach, including over 500 for felonies linked with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, in the time since January 6; this places the gravity of that day's chaos into a stark numerical context, according to the DOJ. The investigation into the breach, now over three years prior still presses forward with determination, working to hold the participants of that day's insurgency responsible for their actions.
