The US Capitol Police accused Matthew Honigford, a former National Guard member, of assaulting law enforcement officers at the US Capitol in Washington, Ohio, on January 6.
Honigford was arrested on November 21 when he fought with a group of Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department officers on Capitol grounds, which was seen in footage from the body camera of the officers.
Capitol Police Accuses Honigford of Assaulting Law Enforcement Officers
A US Capitol police officer stands by his car outside the Russell Senate Office Building in Washington, DC, on August 2, 2023, after unconfirmed eports of an active shooter in the building near the US Capitol.
The video footage showed that Honigford was shoving a flagpole into the chest of one officer and throwing his body to push a barrier into a line that the officers had formed.
He also told people around the area to pull down the barriers and tried following the crowd when it successfully broke the police line.
The charging documents stated that Honigford ignored commands from officers and handed a silver pole he was holding to officers and told them they did not want to have the stick. He also told the officers that he was praying for them.
The investigators found similar reports from Google, Verizon, and law enforcement databases. The report matched the footage of Honigford, where he was seen arriving in Washington on January 6, was in the vicinity of the Capitol around 2 pm to 3 pm that day, and returned to Ohio on January 7.
Honigford was charged with entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds without lawful authority and forcibly assaulting an officer.
The document noted that Honigford had not yet appeared in court, and no lawyer was listed for his case.
Honigford was employed by the Ohio Army National Guard and finished his enlistment in March 2022.
A National Guard staff sergeant said Honigford stopped reporting to drill weekends after the November 2020 presidential election. He said that his sister was sick and needed to assist her and that he did not trust the country's current state.
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January 6 Capitol Violation
According to the US Department of Justice, more than 1,200 people have been charged for crimes related to the January 6 Capitol violation. The prosecutors continued to arrest people involved in the breach.
On Tuesday, Frank Rocco Giustino, a New York massage therapist, was sentenced to three months in jail for participating in the January 6 protest.
Giustino was charged in February with a minor charge related to the Capitol breach. He was arrested in October after he failed to appear for an earlier sentencing in court.
US District Judge James Boasberg said that Giustino seemed to show no remorse for his participation on January 6 or any respect for the court's authority.
"Your behavior from the moment of the (guilty) plea until sentencing has been about the worst of any Jan. 6th defendant I've had," Boasberg said during the hearing.
Giustino said he denounced the violence and did not mean to be disrespectful. He added that he just wanted to go home as he would stay in custody for approximately two more months.
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