WASHINGTON – A Florida man became the first felon sentenced Monday for his role in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol, receiving eight months in prison and being ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for a portion of the damage to the building.
Hodgkins, 38, of Tampa, faced sentencing guidelines of 15 to 21 months in prison after pleading guilty to obstruction of an official proceeding for interrupting Congress' counting of Electoral College votes. He spent 15 minutes in the Senate chamber, holding a flag for former President Donald Trump and taking pictures.
District Judge Randolph Moss called literally waving the flag for Trump an unmistakable sign of loyalty to a single person rather than the country and democracy.
“Although Mr. Hodgkins was only one member of a larger mob, he actively and intentionally participated in an event that threatened not only the security of the Capitol but democracy itself,” Moss said. "That is chilling, for many reasons."
Hodgkins had asked Moss for no prison time. Hodgkins said he had no plans to enter the Capitol when he traveled to Washington to attend Trump's rally earlier in the day, but that he got swept up in the march along Pennsylvania Avenue. Once inside the Capitol, he said he apologized to police officers for the trouble and he offered medical care to an injured rioter.
“I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I am truly remorseful and regretful for my actions in Washington," Hodgkins told the court. “This was a foolish decision on my part that I take full responsibility for it."
Moss said he grappled with sentencing Hodgkins for his personal behavior rather than the more violent or destructive rioters around him. But Moss also called the riot more than a First Amendment protest, forcing the evacuation of the House and Senate chambers under threats against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Vice President Mike Pence.
“He understood what he was doing," Moss said. "He was one of a small number of people who made their way to the Senate floor."
Mona Sedky, an assistant U.S. attorney, had recommended an 18-month sentence to promote respect for the law and to deter a future riot at the Capitol.
"The details of that day were quite harrowing," Sedky said. "He was part of that mob."
Sedky acknowledged that Hodgkins wasn't violent or destructive himself, but he witnessed officers getting injured and rioters spraying chemicals. She said he came ready for conflict with goggles and gloves, and benefitted from the violence of others. He was among about 50 people who made it into the Senate chamber, she said.
“At its core, this was a grave danger to our democracy," Sedky added. "Jan. 6 was an act of domestic terrorism."
Patrick Leduc, a defense lawyer for Hodgkins, disputed calling the riot domestic terrorism because he called it a protest that led to a riot.
But Moss said rioters interrupted one of the most solemn functions of democracy – counting votes for the peaceful transfer of power.
“That is not an exercise of First Amendment rights by any measure," Moss said.
Hodgkins is among the first dozen defendants to reach plea bargains with prosecutors, four for felonies and eight for misdemeanors. Two defendants with misdemeanors have been sentenced, one to six months behind bars and one to three years of probation.
At least 535 people were charged in the first six months after the attack, with 165 accused of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers, according to the Justice Department. More than 50 people are charged with using a deadly or dangerous weapon, or causing serious bodily injury to an officer, the department said.
About 140 police officers were injured during the melee that temporarily halted Congress counting Electoral College votes. The disruption led to charges of obstruction of an official proceeding, which carries a 20-year maximum sentence.
Dozens of conspiracy charges were based on planning for the attack through encrypted messages, military-style training and wearing helmets and reinforced vests.
Hodgkins told investigators that while walking through the Capitol, he saw other people breaking windows and engaging in a knife fight, and others who were injured, but that he didn't participate in that conduct, according to charging documents.
“Our position is that his role would be defined as minimal," Leduc said.
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