A New Jersey man alleged to have white supremacist leanings and who rioted at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was convicted this Friday on all five charges against him, including a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding, NBC News reports.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli didn’t deny that he entered the Capitol building that day and engaged in criminal activity, but he reportedly told the jury that he didn’t know the Capitol building is where Congress meets. As NBC News points out, video evidence shows him yelling at D.C. Police and waving other members of the pro-Trump mob into the building after it was breached. He also can be seen trying to free another rioter from police.
In testimony this Thursday, Hale-Cusanelli said he wasn’t aware that senators and House members were in the Capitol building on Jan. 6. “I know this sounds idiotic, but I’m from New Jersey,” Hale-Cusanelli told jurors. “I feel like an idiot, it sounds idiotic, and it is.” As a result, prosecutors had to convince the jury that he acted “knowingly” and not “through ignorance, mistake, or accident,” according to court records.
“I didn’t know the Capitol building was the same as the congressional building,” Hale-Cusanelli told a federal prosecutor.
Hale-Cusanelli has been in jail since Feb. 2021, partly due to evidence presented by prosecutors showing he had extremist beliefs. At least 34 people connected to him told prosecutors that he held “extremist or radical views pertaining to the Jewish people, minorities, and women.” A Navy petty officer claimed Hale-Cusanelli, who was a member of the U.S. Army Reserves at the time of the Capitol riot, once said that “Hitler should have finished the job.”
Photos of Hale-Cusanelli seemingly dressed like Hitler were also presented to the jury, but jurors didn’t hear all the evidence of Hale-Cusanelli’s alleged racist history because the judge ruled it would be prejudicial. He’s due to be sentenced on Sept. 16.
