WASHINGTON — A Jan. 6 rioter who has dressed up as Adolf Hitler and held a safety clearance is scheduled to be sentenced in federal courtroom choose Thursday.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, 32, of New Jersey, who was an Military reservist when he stormed the U.S. Capitol in January 2021, was convicted in Might after he didn’t persuade jurors that he didn’t know that Congress met on the Capitol, a declare he made on the stand to keep away from a conviction for obstruction of Congress.
“I do know this sounds idiotic, however I’m from New Jersey,” Hale-Cusanelli informed jurors when he stated he did not know Congress met on the Capitol. “I really feel like an fool, it sounds idiotic, and it’s.”
U.S. District Choose Trevor McFadden, a Trump-appointed choose who oversaw Hale-Cusanelli’s trial and can sentence him, stated his testimony was “extremely doubtful” and indicated that he was open to a sentencing enhancement.
Federal prosecutors are looking for 6½ years in jail. Hale-Cusanelli was convicted on all 5 counts he confronted, together with a felony cost of obstruction of an official continuing.
In a authorities sentencing memo, federal prosecutors referred to Hale-Cusanelli’s “enthusiasm for civil conflict and his well-documented historical past of violent rhetoric” and argued that vital jail time is warranted due to his background and his false statements on the stand.
“A pupil of historical past and authorities who had beforehand defined the intricacies of Presidential election process to his pals, Hale-Cusanelli falsely testified at trial that he didn’t know that: (a) ‘Congress’ sat within the Capitol constructing; (b) the Electoral School Certification Continuing was happening within the constructing; and (c) when he entered the Capitol, members of Congress have been nonetheless there, having fled and hidden from the mob,” they wrote. “Hale-Cusanelli lied on the stand.”
Prosecutors additionally stated Hale-Cusanelli “subscribes to White Supremacist and Nazi-Sympathizer ideologies that drive his enthusiasm for one more civil conflict.” The jury noticed solely a fraction of the federal government’s proof of extremist views held by Hale-Cusanelli, a former safety contractor who beforehand had a “secret” safety clearance.
“Hale-Cusanelli is, at greatest, extraordinarily tolerant of violence and demise,” prosecutors stated. “What Hale-Cusanelli was doing on January 6 was not activism, it was the preamble to his civil conflict.”
Hale-Cusanelli’s lawyer stated in a protection sentencing memo that the courtroom will hear from Hale-Cusanelli “that he regrets his actions, deplores the violence and property destruction on the Capitol, and apologizes to members of Congress, congressional workers, and legislation enforcement for his half within the occasions.”
The federal government sentencing memo refers to Hale-Cusanelli’s adoptive aunt, Cynthia Hughes, who spoke at a Trump rally in Pennsylvania this month. The memo mentions her function with the Patriot Freedom Undertaking, a gaggle that has supported Jan. 6 defendants, and factors to publicly reported info that prosecutors say “pretty helps an inference that Hale-Cusanelli and Hughes have used the January 6 assault on the Capitol and the notoriety of Hale-Cusanelli’s case — which Hughes herself has exacerbated by way of her public and media appearances — to complement themselves.” A footnote within the authorities’s memo mentions former President Donald Trump’s rally on Sept. 3.
Hughes wrote a letter in assist of Hale-Cusanelli, saying he “shouldn’t be a violent individual; he doesn’t stroll across the streets of NJ trying like Hitler.”
Despite the fact that authorities courtroom filings famous that 34 of Hale-Cusanelli’s co-workers informed investigators that he held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish folks, minorities, and girls”; that he attended a Black Lives Matter protest carrying a “clipboard stuffed with statistics” in hopes somebody would “debate him” about variations between races; and that he was arrested with two others 12 years in the past and accused of utilizing a “potato gun” bearing the phrases “WHITE IS RIGHT,” his aunt stated in a letter to the courtroom that there “shouldn’t be a racist bone in his physique.”
Prosecutors say it’s clear Hale-Cusanelli isn’t sorry about his actions on Jan. 6.
“Hale-Cusanelli’s self-serving statements at trial that he was mistaken to enter the Capitol and that he was sorry that he did ought to be given the identical weight as his self-serving claims that he didn’t know Congress was within the Capitol constructing — which is to say, none,” they wrote.
His sentencing is ready for 10:30 a.m. ET.
