Where Jan. 6 Criminal Cases In PA Stand On Insurrection's Anniversary

PENNSYLVANIA — Nearly a thousand Americans and dozens of Pennsylvania have been charged with crimes in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021 riots at the U.S. Capitol. Numerous cases have resulted in convictions, while others remain in the adjutication process.

Meanwhile, the House select committee continues to investigate the insurrection, and has recommended that President Donald Trump and other leading figures face criminal charges for inspiring and inciting the event.

Below are the Pennsylvania residents that have been charged, their hometown, what charges were filed against them, and where their case stands.

• Zachary Jordan Alam, assaulting officers and destruction of property, pleaded not guilty to all counts in December 2022
• Melanie Archer, Pittsburgh, pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, faces up to 6 months behind bars
• Dawn Bancroft, Fort Washington, pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building, sentenced to 60 days behind bars and three years of probation
• Pauline Bauer, Kane, violent entry, disorderly conduct, obstruction of justice, pleaded not guilty to all counts in June 2022
• Michael Craig Bingert, Philadelphia, obstruction of an official proceeding, assaulting officers, disorderly conduct, pleaded no t guilty to all counts in August
• William Blauser Jr., Ludlow, violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds and related counts, pleaded guilty to picketing in a Capitol building, sentenced to $500 fine and $500 restitution
• Jordan Bonenberger, Pittsburgh, entering and remaining on Capitol grounds, case in progress
• L. Brent Bozell IV, Palmyra, obstruction of an official proceeding, destruction of government property, entering restricted grounds, pleaded not guilty to all counts and case is underway
• Tammy "Butry" Bronsburg, Williamsport, entering and remaining in a restricted building and related counts, pleaded guilty and sentencing is forthcoming. She faces up to 6 months in prison.
• Terry Brown, Myerstown, entering and remaining in a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty to one count and sentenced to 1.5 years behind bars
• Alan William Byerly, Fleetwood, assault on a federal officer, obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder, assault, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 34 months in prison, three years of probation, and $2,000 of restitution
• Thomas Carey, Pittsburgh, obstruction of law enforcement, assault of a law enforcement officer, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, case underway
• Christy Clark, Lewistown, entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 2 years of porbation, 600 hours of community service, and $500 restitution
• Matthew Clark, Lewistown, entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 2 years of porbation, 600 hours of community service, and $500 restitution
• Michael James Dickinson, Philadelphia, assaulting, resisiting, or impeding certain officers, civil disorder, and related counts, pleaded guilty in Sept. 22 and is awaiting sentencing
• Gary Edwards, Churchville, entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty to one count and sentenced to 1 year probation, 200 hours of community service, and $2,500 fine
• Joseph W. Fischer, Jonestown, civil disorder, assaulting officers, obstruction of an official proceeding, case underway
• Samuel Christopher Fox, Pittsburgh, entering a restricted building, violent entry and disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, pleaded guilty to one count and sentenced to 1.5 years of probation, 60 days home detention, $2,500 fine, and $500 restitution
• Raechel Genco, Philadelphia, entering restricted building, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 12 months probation and 60 hours community service
• Isaiah Giddings, Philadelphia, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, pleaded guilty and sentencing is forthcoming
• Kenneth Grayson, Bridgeville, pleaded guilty and sentencing is forthcoming
• Brian Gundersen, State College, obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding law enforcement officers, pleaded not guilty but convicted, sentencing forthcoming
• Brian Healion, Upper Darby, unalawful entry and disorderly conduct, case in progress
• Jennifer Heinl, Pittsburgh, entering restircted building, violent entry, related counts, originally pleaded not guilty but switched to plea agreement on one count and was sentenced to 14 days "intermittent incarceration," followed by two years of probation
• Annie Howell, Swoyersville, obstruction of an official proceeding, entering restricted grounds, entered plea agreement pleading guilty to one count, sentencing to 3 years probation
• Mikhail Edward Slye, Meadville, assaulting officers, civil disorder, disorderly conduct, act of violence in the Capitol, and related counts, no plea yet entered and case remains underway
• Charles Bradford Smith, Shippensburg, conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding, entering restricted building with a deadly weapon, impeding ingress or egress in a restricted building with a deadly weapon, unlawful possession of a deadly weapon on Capitol grounds, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 3 years and 5 months in prison, along with 3 years of probation and $2,000 in restitution
• Paul Spigelmyer, Harrisburg, entering restricted building, violent entry, related counts, pleaded guilty after originally pleading not guilty, sentenced to 2 years probation and 45 days of home detention, along with 600 hours of community service and $500 restitution
• Brian E. Stentz, Fort Washington, violent entry, disorderly conduct, pleaded guilty to one count and sentenced to 3 years probation
• Philip C. Vogel, New Castle, restricted entry, violent entry, obstruction of official proceeding, pleaded not guilty and case is ongoing
• Jeremy Vorous, Venango, violent entry and obstruction of official proceeding, pleaded not guilty and case is ongoing
• Paul Mitchell Vukich, disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, restricted entry, related counts, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 30 days behind bars and $500 restitution
• Freedom Vy, Havertown, violent entry and disorderly conduct, case underway
• Sandra Suzanne Weyer, Mechanicsburg, violent entry and disorderly conduct, case underway
• Gary Wickersham, West Chester, violent entry and disorderly conduct, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 3 years of probation and fines
• Riley june Williams, Harrisburg, convicted of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder and related counts, sentencing forthcoming
• Andrew Wrigley, entering restricted grounds, violent entry, pleaded guilty and sentenced to 1.5 years probation, $2,000 fine, $500 restitution

Further individual case details and charging documents are available through the U.S. Department of Justice.

Looking back

The violent siege on the Capitol two years ago was an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. It resulted in the deaths of five people during or soon after the attack, including two Capitol police officers and one rioter. About 140 police officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted in the attack, according to the Justice Department.

It was the first in U.S. history that the transfer of power from one administration to another was not peaceful. In a speech before rioters attacked the Capitol, Trump repeated the same claims he had been making in the two months since the election that it had been stolen, then urged his supporters to walk from the rally site on the National Mall to the Capitol.

Biden is expected to mark the two-year anniversary of the insurrection with remarks Friday in the East Room of the White House, according to a schedule released Monday by his office. The White House did not provide details, according to reports from The Hill and others.

In a blistering criticism of the insurrection last year, Biden did not mention Trump by name, but squarely blamed the “defeated president” for the attack he said raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.

During its sweeping nearly 18-month investigation, the Jan. 6 committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained more than a million pages of documents before releasing its 814-page report last month.

The panel came to the unanimous conclusion that Trump coordinated a “conspiracy” on multiple levels, pressuring states, federal officials and lawmakers to try to overturn his defeat, and inspired a violent mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and interrupt the certification of Biden’s win.

Chairman Bernie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, called the final report a “roadmap to justice” for Trump, whose actions leading up to the insurrection were the nearly singular focus of the committee.

“Donald Trump lit that fire,” Thompson wrote in the committee’s final report. “But in the weeks beforehand, the kindling he ultimately ignited was amassed in plain sight.”

The committee’s criminal referral asks the Justice Department to consider charges against Trump related to inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding. The referral is largely symbolic, and the Justice Department is under no obligation to comply with recommendations in the unprecedented referral.

Witnesses, who ranged from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement officers to some of the rioters themselves, detailed Trump’s “premeditated” actions ahead of the attack and told the committee how his wide-ranging efforts to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to Jan. 6, “stop the steal” rallies built on the former president’s unsubstantiated accusations were held in Trump strongholds and swing states. The first was four days after the 2020 presidential election, on Nov. 7, 2020, at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, but other notable rallies were held in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina.

From Jan. 5-7, 2021, Trump supporters staged 39 “stop the steal” protests in their state capitals, according to a report from the Bridging Divides Initiative, a project of Princeton University

The attack promoted the most expansive federal law enforcement investigation in U.S. history. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $500,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for placing pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. The agency is still seeking the public’s help to identify people pictured in 1,433 photos taken the day of the insurrection.

Less than half (335) of the cases have been adjudicated and the defendants have received their sentences, including 185 who have been sentenced to incarceration.

Among the most closely watched trials was that of Oath Keepers leaders Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy — the most serious of the charges so far — in late November.

Three of their co-defendants were acquitted of the charge. Four other individuals have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges, the most serious of those filed so far in the investigation.

Seditious conspiracy charges reflect the Justice Department’s belief that the Capitol breach was a grave threat to the operation of the U.S. government.

Under the rarely-used federal seditious conspiracy law, enacted after the American Civil War, charges are filed when two or more people plot to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the United States or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States. …”

As the federal criminal cases continue, the FBI is continuing to ask the public’s help in finding others who participated in the attack, which cell phone technology made one of the most documented crimes in U.S. history. Many of the Justice Department’s cases have been built on video footage of the attack, social media posts, phone location data and tips from the public, and federal prosecutors say hundreds more cases could be filed.

Trials will continue this year and perhaps into 2024.