Ex-NSA Employee Sentenced For Storming Capitol With White Nationalists

WASHINGTON, DC — A former employee of the National Security Agency was sentenced to two weeks in jail for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, according to an Associated Press report.

Federal prosecutors had recommended 30 days of imprisonment for Paul Lovley, who lived in Halethorpe at the time of the attack. Lovley, 24, worked as an information technology specialist for the NSA before the Jan. 6 riot, according to prosecutors.

Instead, U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lovley to 14 days behind bars. The sentence will be served over the course of seven weekends, along with three years of probation, according to a spokesperson for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia.

Lovley pleaded guilty in February to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Lovley was charged with four other men whom prosecutors described as members of the white nationalist America First movement. The movement's leader is internet personality Nicholas Fuentes, who is known for promoting white supremacist and antisemitic views on his livestreams. His followers often call themselves “Groypers” or members of a “Groyper Army.”

Prosecutors said Lovley and co-defendants Joseph Brody, Thomas Carey, Jon Lizak and Gabriel Chase gathered at Lovely's Maryland home the day before thousands of supporters of former president Donald Trump stormed the U.S. Capitol to interrupt a joint session of Congress gathered to certify the 2020 presidential election results.

The following day, Lovley and his co-defendants traveled to Washington, D.C., and attended Trump's “Stop the Steal” rally, which preceded the attack.

According to prosecutors, Lovley and the other men went to the Capitol following the rally and moved through multiple levels, corridors, and rooms, including the office and conference room of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.

After 35 minutes, the group left the building and moved to the north end of the Capitol, where they witnessed the breach of the North Door. According to prosecutors, Brody helped another person use a metal barricade to attack a U.S. Capitol police officer, while Brody and Chase also participated in the destruction of media equipment.

In a letter addressed to the judge, Lovley said he knew that his actions on Jan. 6 were “unbelievably irresponsible.”

“I am certain that I would not have even shown up if I had known that the day was going to turn into what it did beforehand,” he wrote.

In the months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 870 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, according to federal prosecutors. More than 265 people have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

The investigation remains ongoing.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.