Capitol rioter to serve 8 months in prison in 1st felony sentencing from Jan. 6

A Florida man who joined in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol will serve eight months in prison in the first felony sentencing to result from the Jan. 6 attack.

A Florida man who joined in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol will serve eight months in prison with 24 months of supervised release, in the first felony sentencing to result from the Justice Department's sprawling investigation into the insurrection. Washington, D.C., district judge Randolph Moss said that Paul Hodgkins, 38, who was seen in videos entering the Senate chamber and taking selfies, appeared "prepared for conflict" as he joined the pro-Trump mob in breaching the Capitol in what the judge described as a grave threat to democracy itself. The Justice Department had asked for Hodgkins to be sentenced to 18 months in prison, while his attorneys had asked that he be released without any prison sentence. Referring to pictures of Hodgkins holding a red "Trump 2020" flag in the well of the Senate, Moss said it showed "he was staking a claim on the floor of the U.S. Senate, not with an American flag but a flag of a single individual over a nation."