WASHINGTON - A Donald Trump supporter who filmed himself assaulting police officers and breaking into the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 riot pleaded guilty Friday to two felony charges.
A Tennessee resident, Ronald Sandlin, 35, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
Nathaniel DeGrave and Josiah Colt, the friends and co-conspirators of Sandlin, pleaded guilty to two felonies and Sandlin, Colt to felony obstruction.
The trio attended the Stop the Steal rally in Washington, D.C. on January 6, but watched Trump's speech from a TGI Fridays in Virginia where they were having lunch. After arriving in D.C. Sandlin, they repeatedly refer to the U.S. Capitol as the State Capitol building before storming the building as alarms blared, court documents show. He then joined the mob to try to open fire doors to let more rioters in, grabbing an officer's helmet in the process.
Get out of the way! Sandlin told officers that their life is not worth it today. Sandlin slapped officers who tried to lock the doors to the Senate gallery after rioters made their way to the Senate. He yelled at them, telling other rioters to grab the door. Sandlin celebrated in the Senate chamber with a selfie video. We took it. We did it, he said, while crying and wheezing inside the Senate gallery. He later smoked marijuana in the Capitol Rotunda, declaring that he had made history and that this was our house, according to court documents.
Sandlin also stole a book and attempted to steal an oil painting, but other rioters prevented him from doing so.
Sandlin had solicited donations for his trip to D.C. on a fundraising website and wrote that he needed the support of Patriots Defending Out Country On January 6th. More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, and more than 350 have pleaded guilty.
A bodybuilder who dragged an officer down the Capitol pleaded guilty earlier this week, and a judge sentenced one of the rioters who assaulted former officer Michael Fanone to more than seven years in federal prison.