WASHINGTON - A Pennsylvania man who claimed he was influenced by the QAnon movement pleaded guilty Tuesday to assaulting police officers with a giant Trump sign at the Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Marshall Neefe, 25, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers during a court hearing. Neefe admitted after the attack that he was bringing a gun next time and that he wanted to hurt officers who protected the Capitol.
The enormous, blue Trump sign that the mob used as a weapon was at least 8 feet tall and 10 feet wide, and supported by large casters that were approximately the size of a man's head, according to the agreed-upon statement of offense in Neefe's case. One of the U.S. Capitol PoliceCapitol Police officers who were part of the line said it took at least 15 officers to carry the sign away.
If I had it my way, every cop who hurled a baton or maced on sic of us would be lined up and put down, Neefe admitted he wrote on Jan. 6. We made sure they knew we OWN them. Neefe admitted before the Capitol attack that he really wanted to crack some commie skulls and that he made a wooden club that he called The Commie Knocker. Neefe, according to the government, told the FBI after his arrest in September 2021 that he was heavily influenced by QAnon conspiracy theories and that he anchored an American flag to a wooden club to use against possible Antifa. He said he lost the club inside the Capitol, and he no longer supports QAnon conspiracy theories, according to the government.
According to the government, Neefe exchanged racist messages with his co-defendant Charles Smith, expressing a desire to lynch Black Americans. He also spoke of his desire to kill Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. Looks like mcconnel needs a bullet in the head, he wrote in December 2020, according to the government.
Neefe's plea agreement states that his sentencing guidelines are 41 to 51 months in federal prison.
In March, U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled that Neefe should be held until trial because he posed a threat.
Some members of the public and even a handful of members of Congress keep the impression that peaceful political protesters are being held in jail pending trial, Lamberth wrote. Neefe's detention disproves that delusion. Neefe is not detained because of his beliefs, but because of his alleged violent actions and his expressed intent to engage in violent activity again. A former New York City Police Department officer was found guilty on Monday of assaulting a D.C. Metropolitan Police Department officer on Jan. 6 on six counts. In a separate case, a judge sentenced a former U.S. Marine who assaulted law enforcement officers to more than two years in federal prison.
Nearly 800 people have been charged with felony crimes in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and more than 250 have pleaded guilty. The FBI has hundreds of additional Jan. 6 rioters who have not yet been arrested, and the Justice Department is seeking millions of dollars in new resources to prosecute the cases, as reported by NBC News.