WASHINGTON - A Texas man who had a GoPro strapped to his body while he committed crimes at the U.S. Capitol on January 6 was sentenced Friday to a year and a day in federal prison.
Nolan Cooke, a 24-year-old from Sherman, Texas, was sentenced by Judge Royce C. Lamberth after pleading guilty in March to a felony charge of civil disorder. Prosecutors said Cooke helped lead the charge of rioters who broke through the police line guarding the east side of the Capitol building during the election's certification and later bragged that he was one of the first to break through the barricade. Video evidence presented in court and released to reporters at the request of NBC News shows Cooke repeatedly clashing with police officers who were overwhelmed by the mob. He helped break through the initial barricade while yelling at officers who struggled to control the pro-Trump rioters.
Cooke yells in the video. This is our f- g house, man, he adds, before telling officers to join the mob.
He says that we want our f -- - - g country. Cooke later says he s part of a revolution and yells We are taking this motherf r! Bust the windows. We are the front lines. Cooke also says there is a front line. Break the glass! Cooke's sentencing was the culmination of a busy week in the Jan. 6 investigation. The House committee probing the riot released new footage of the Capitol attack during its prime time hearing on Thursday, and the Justice Department announced that members of the Proud Boys had been indicted on seditious conspiracy charges.
The FBI arrested a D.C. chiropractor whose office is just blocks from Capitol grounds in connection with the attack. A Republican candidate was arrested on Jan. 6 in Michigan.
There are hundreds more arrests in connection with Jan. 6 and the FBI has made more than 820 arrests. The FBI's Capitol Violence website has images of more than 350 people believed to commit violent acts that day, and hundreds of others have been identified by online sleuths who have not yet been arrested.
Cooke was able to draw on more than just his GoPro footage. According to prosecutors, a Texas resident posted a picture on Instagram with a woman believed to have been his girlfriend.
Cooke wrote that he wouldn't want anyone other than me to take on the revolution.