Bucks Co. Man Convicted For Role In U.S. Capitol Riots

LOWER BUCKS COUNTY, PA —A Bristol man has been convicted of multiple felony and misdemeanor charges for his involvement in the Jan. 6, 2021, riots on the U.S. Capitol, federal authorities said.

Ryan Samsel, 40, was among five men found guilty in the District of Columbia Friday on charges related to their conduct during the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol., the U.S. Attorney's Office, District of Columbia, said in a press release.

Federal authorities said their actions and the actions of others disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.

Samsel, along with James Tate Grant, 31, of Cary, North Carolina; Paul Russell Johnson, 38, of Lanexa, Virginia; Stephen Chase Randolph, 34, of Harrodsburg Kentucky; and Jason Benjamin Blythe, 28, of Fort Worth, Texas, were convicted following a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Jia M. Cobb.

Samsel and Randolph were found guilty of assaulting Officer C.E. with a deadly or dangerous weapon (a metal crowd control barrier) or while inflicting bodily injury.

Samsel, Grant, and Johnson were also found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding.

Samsel was convicted of additional felony charges of civil disorder, assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; and assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon (a wooden plank).

In addition to the felonies, the five were convicted of a misdemeanor charge for committing an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds. Samsel, Grant, and Johnson were convicted of a misdemeanor charge for disorderly and disruptive conduct on the Capitol grounds.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for June 13, 2024.

According to evidence presented during the trial, the group participated in the first breach of the restricted Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and led the initial attack on United States Capitol Police (USCP) officers.

Their attack paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds.

Around 12:40 p.m., the five men joined with other rioters at the Peace Circle, across from the Capitol grounds. Here, the sidewalk at the edge of the Capitol grounds across the street from the Peace Circle was blocked by linked bike-rack barricades.

A second set of bike rack barricades, with signs that read “Area Closed By Order of the United States Capitol Police Board” and reinforced with snow fencing and zip ties, barred the way up the Pennsylvania Walkway, a footpath that runs from the Capitol to the sidewalk across the street from the Peace Circle.

At about 12:50 p.m., Samsel approached the first barricade, opened a section, entered the restricted grounds, and approached the Capitol via the Pennsylvania Walkway. This marked the first breach of the restricted perimeter.

Grant followed closely behind Samsel and waived the crowd forward onto the restricted grounds. Defendants Johnson, Blythe, Randolph, and others in the crowd followed Grant and Samsel past the first barricade and walked toward the officers standing behind the second barricade.

Samsel and Grant then began to forcibly push and pull on the second barricade while officers held it in place, federal authorities said.

Samsel stopped pushing long enough to remove his denim jacket, hand it to someone off-camera, and turn his red “Make America Great Again” hat around backward.

Johnson, Grant and Samsel joined Randolph in lifting the linked metal bike rack barricade off the ground. Blythe moved forward and grabbed the barricade with the other four defendants, and the five drove the metal bike rack barricade into a line of USCP officers.

As they drove the metal bike rack barricade at the police line, one officer was struck in the face.

The force of the strike threw the officer backward and caused the officer to slam their head twice: first against a metal handrail, then against the stairs. The officer lost consciousness and suffered a concussion.

Another officer was driven several feet backward by the metal bike rack barricade until the back of their body ran into the stairwell and handrail behind them.

After the five defendants pushed the metal bike rack barricade into the USCP officers, Randolph jumped over the barricade and grabbed an officer.

Each of the five men continued to fuel the riot on Jan. 6.

Samsel assaulted other officers, Johnson incited the crowd over a megaphone, and Grant entered the Capitol building, while Blythe and Randolph climbed to the Upper West Terrace. The five remained at the Capitol for hours.

Samsel’s additional assaultive and destructive conduct included grabbing the riot shield of a law enforcement officer while rioters were attempting to overtake police, tearing through the tarp in the scaffolding on the Capitol grounds, waving a flag in the officers’ faces, and taking a 2x4 plank of wood from the scaffolding and throwing it at a group of Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) officers as they struggled to maintain a police line.

Stanley Woodward Jr., Samsel’s defense attorney, argued during the trial that it is “not possible to pin the events of Jan. 6 on Samsel” because the video evidence clearly shows a large crowd next to and behind Samsel and his co-defendants, each of whom was just as likely to begin pushing the metal barricades, Courthouse News Service reported.

Since the riots, more than 1,265 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 440 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing.