A Colorado man accused of entering U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office during the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to three years of probation this week.
Hunter Palm, who was arrested in Denver in May 2021, pleaded guilty to disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, a misdemeanor, according to court records.
Other charges — including obstruction of an official proceeding, disorderly conduct in a restricted building, entering and remaining in certain rooms in the Capitol, disorderly conduct in the Capitol, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in the Capitol — were dismissed as part of a plea deal.
A federal judge on Thursday sentenced Palm to 36 months of probation and ordered him to pay $500 in restitution and a $25 “special assessment.”
Videos that Palm turned over to federal investigators showed him yelling “stop the steal!” and entering the conference room in Pelosi’s office with a crowd of people who were shouting they were going to kill the House speaker, according to court records.
Palm admitted in an interview with investigators that he entered the Capitol on Jan. 6. He told them he was pushed into the building, but surveillance video reviewed by investigators showed that he walked into the Capitol freely, according to court documents.
Palm is one of more than a dozen Coloradans who have been prosecuted for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 as supporters of President Donald Trump disrupted Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election.
All told, more than 1,230 people have been charged with federal crimes in the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol, ranging from misdemeanor offenses like trespassing to felonies like assaulting police officers and seditious conspiracy.
Roughly 730 people have pleaded guilty to charges, while another roughly 170 have been convicted of at least one charge at a trial decided by a judge or a jury, according to an Associated Press database.
About 140 officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted at the Capitol on Jan. 6, according to the Department of Justice.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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