Confederate Flag/Pepper Spray Rioter Gets 30 Months

April 23, 2024 Extremists, Trump cultists

Courthouse News reports:

A federal judge on Monday imposed a 30-month prison sentence on a man who brandished a Confederate flag outside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and pepper sprayed two Capitol police officers.

Israel Easterday, who was 19 years old when he participated in the riot, faced a potential sentence of 12 years and seven months per to the Justice Department’s recommendation.

The now-23-year-old Easterday, who grew up in an Amish family in rural Kentucky and was homeschooled by his mother until he was 14, apologized for pepper-spraying the officers and said it was the “stupidest mistake” of his entire life.

From the Justice Department:



Easterday, 23, of Munfordville, Kentucky, was convicted by a jury of the following six felonies: civil disorder; two counts of assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon; entering and remaining in restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon; and engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds with a deadly or dangerous weapon.

In addition to the felonies, Easterday was convicted of three misdemeanor offenses: disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; act of physical violence in the Capitol grounds or buildings; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.

According to evidence presented during the trial, Easterday traveled from Kentucky to Washington, D.C., because he was upset about what he perceived as government corruption related to the 2020 presidential election. He then joined the mob that stormed the Capitol building’s east side while wearing a black beanie with the logo “I ♥ TRUMP” and carrying a Confederate battle flag.

At approximately 2:30 p.m., members of Congress, Senators, and their staffs were still inside the Capitol building and in the process of being evacuated.

At that same time, Easterday was among the mob of rioters just outside the Capitol building’s East Rotunda doors as rioters persistently tried to enter the building, using objects like a flagpole, among other items, to smash the windows of those doors. A small group of U.S. Capitol Police (USCP) officers, with their backs against the wall, were all that stood in the rioters’ way.

As one of those USCP officers dealt with another rioter, Easterday blasted the officer in the face with pepper spray, injuring and temporarily incapacitating the officer. A few minutes later, the officer collapsed, which enabled another rioter to steal his baton.

Soon thereafter, an unknown rioter handed Easterday a second can of pepper spray, which Easterday—smiling—used to indiscriminately spray another small group of officers, hitting at least one of them in the face. That officer, too, was temporarily incapacitated.

A few minutes later, the rioters succeeded in breaching the East Rotunda doors. At approximately 2:39 p.m., Easterday illegally entered the Capitol building through those doors and then grabbed multiple other rioters and pulled them into the building with him.

From there, Easterday climbed the Gallery Stairs to the Capitol building’s third floor, which he roamed before returning to the East Rotunda doors and exiting at about 2:51 p.m.

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