Joe.My.God. LGBT News
The Associated Press reports:
A member of the far-right Oath Keepers extremist group who was part of a security detail for former President Donald Trump’s longtime adviser Roger Stone before storming the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Thursday to more than four years in prison.
Roberto Minuta, who was seen on video guarding Stone hours before the riot on Jan. 6, 2021, was among six Oath Keeper members convicted by jurors of seditious conspiracy for what prosecutors said was a violent plot to stop the transfer of power from Trump to President Joe Biden after the 2020 election.
CNN reports:
Minuta, who prosecutors described as one of Oath Keepers leader Stewart Rhodes’ “most trusted men,” was not initially at the Capitol but sped over in a golf cart when he learned of the breach, prosecutors said.
Once inside, he joined a crowd pushing against police and screamed, “This was bound to happen.” Prosecutors showed jurors violent messages and videos of Minuta, including one where he screamed that “millions will die…get your f**king soul ready” while driving to Washington, DC for January 6.
Before the sentence was handed down Thursday, Minuta told Mehta that he grew angry over Covid-19 restrictions in New York, and claimed he and his family were receiving “in person death threats by Anitfa.”
Politico reports:
Minuta, one of more than a dozen Oath Keepers who surged with a mob into the Capitol on Jan. 6, lashed out at the group’s founder, Stewart Rhodes, on Thursday as he prepared to face sentencing for his conviction on seditious conspiracy.
Minuta said Rhodes was part of a “deranged leadership” that turned the Oath Keepers “into a political ‘rah-rah Trump’ disaster” that duped many of the group’s members into criminal activity. “I was misled and naive,” Minuta said, shortly before U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta sentenced him to 4½ years in prison.
“To be fair, the prosecution did not have to do much to make me look bad.”
Roberto Minuta is making a statement before sentencing. Says he was embarrassed by the anger he showed, said it set a bad example.
“I entered the Capitol alarms blazing, chemical irritants in the air…” pic.twitter.com/KP4yTR8Chg
— Ryan J. Reilly (@ryanjreilly) June 1, 2023
Roberto Minuta told the judge he’s ashamed of his actions and was “repulsed” by the lack of remorse Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes showed at his own sentencing. https://t.co/S0YljDFgf6
— ABC7 Sarasota (@mysuncoast) June 1, 2023