A Greenwood man has been sentenced to 30 days behind bars for his role in the 2021 riot at the U.S. Capitol.
Joshua Wagner apologized in court Friday and said “there’s nothing I can do to take that back.”
He pleaded guilty last year to a misdemeanor charge of parading in the Capitol.
The government said Wagner’s phone video showed him referring to Capitol police officers as “traitors.”
“We will occupy this ground for as long as we can,” he said, according to investigators.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson said Wagner clearly wanted to inspire the rioters.
He was not like others who “stepped in, took a selfie and stepped out,” she said.
A co-defendant, Israel Tutrow of Greenfield was placed on probation in December.
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Riot or Insurrection . . . in any case mob action on 6 Jan 2021 was an affront to democracy and marked a severe blow to over 200 years of a peaceful transition of power. Those who participated in the planned orchestrated deadly attack should be punished.
Votes were affirmed and valid. And results were indeed close from the electoral perspective but not the popular vote. A so-called democracy where citizens are deemed intelligent enough to directly elect representation for all but the president. In this era of instantaneous information from sea to shining sea, no justification exists for the Electoral College and what has become potential malfeasance by electors.
And, frankly, a disappointment in election results does not justify violent mob action to seek to overturn a vote. The eyes of the world watched the United States behave in a manner typically and negatively attributed to a banana republic.
Sadly, too many members of Congress and in Statehouses nationwide continue to advance a lie. While this may reflect a sound strategy to engage and maintain constituent support it is not a a sound strategy to maintain a safe and fair and effective quasi-democracy in this constitutional republic. The world watched and the world recognizes how to attack the US from within through manipulation of its citizens.
Political prosecution.