A Georgia man who participated in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021 was sentenced to one year in prison on Wednesday after being found guilty of obstruction and assault, The Hill reported.
Bruno Joseph Cua, 21, was found guilty of two felony charges: obstruction of an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, interfering with, intimidating, opposing, or impeding officers. According to prosecutors, Cua was 18 at the time of the riot and is the sixth-youngest person to be charged in relation to the incident.
Prosecutors said Cua attended former President Donald Trump's rally at the Washington Monument with his parents before separating from them and walking to the Capitol building. He then climbed onto scaffolding and entered the building on the third floor.
Cua then walked around the building yelling, "This is what happens when you piss off patriots," and "Where are the swamp rats hiding?"
Cua later shoved an officer who was trying to lock the doors to the Senate Gallery. Once inside, Cua sat in former Vice President Mike Pence's chair as well as at the desks of various senators. Cua also let other rioters into the chamber.
"Cua played a unique and prominent role on January 6, opening the Senate Chamber to rioters, escalating confrontations, and leading other rioters into and through the Capitol," prosecutors wrote in a sentencing memo.
Before his sentencing, Cua apologized in court for his actions, saying, "Everything that day was just one terrible decision after another."
Although prosecutors had sought more than four years' imprisonment, Cua received a sentence of one year and one day in prison followed by three years of supervised release.
Theodore Bunker ✉
Theodore Bunker, a Newsmax writer, has more than a decade covering news, media, and politics.
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