The Justice Department has recommended that a Pennsylvania barber convicted in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot face 20 years behind bars.
Ryan Samsel was found guilty in February 2024 on several charges, including assaulting federal officers, carrying out an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds and obstruction of an official proceeding.
The DOJ proposed a sentence of 240 months in prison, three years of supervised release, $2,000 restitution and a fine, according to court documents.
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“A sentence of 240 months of incarceration reflects the gravity of Samsel’s conduct and provides sufficient deterrence given Samsel’s continued lack of remorse, active and public rehashing of false narratives, violent criminal history, and interest in assaulting the Capitol again,” the DOJ wrote in a memorandum.
Samsel was the first rioter to breach the restricted perimeter of the Capitol with other supporters of now-President-elect Donald Trump in an effort to delay the certification of President Biden’s 2020 election victory, according to the DOJ.
He was found guilty of verbally abusing officers, forcibly pushing and pulling on metal barricades, and assaulting an officer by lifting a metal barricade and striking him in the face with it.
Police subsequently became overwhelmed as “the floodgates opened” and “thousands of rioters poured onto the West Front of the U.S. Capitol grounds,” the DOJ said in the document.
“Samsel spent the next hour and a half terrorizing the police on the West Front,” the document said. “He assaulted the police with his flag, grabbed another officer’s shield, tore at scaffolding, flashed officers, grabbed a 2×4 plank and hurled it at the police line, and threw a pole at a different police line.”
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“Samsel was proud of his actions on that day, taking the time to record a selfie video during the riot and announce with a smile that he had breached the Capitol,” the DOJ wrote. “Samsel was still proud of his actions years later when he told an interviewer that his actions on January 6th were justified, because ‘sometimes civil disorder is needed.'”
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