Missouri man who dressed in Revolutionary War gear on Jan. 6 found guilty on four counts
Published in News & Features
WASHINGTON — A Missouri locksmith who breached the Capitol during the Jan. 6 attack dressed in a Revolutionary War costume was found guilty in federal court Friday of four misdemeanor counts.
Isaac Yoder, of Nevada in southwestern Missouri, had turned down the government’s offer to plead guilty to one count and instead asked for a bench trial before U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. He is scheduled to be sentenced on Aug. 25.
The charges each carry a maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $5,000 fine.
“Yoder did more than simply go inside, however,” Lamberth wrote in his verdict. “As described above, Yoder made a speech to other rioters atop a pile of broken furniture, walked around the hallways and Crypt in colonial gear with a flag and sword, and allowed other rioters to take photos with him, all adding to the chaos and further impeding efforts of the police officers to clear the building.”
The verdict challenges an argument tossed around by Yoder and conservative Republicans — including U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — that those who entered the Capitol that day might not have known they were doing anything wrong or that the building was closed.
In testimony at his March trial, Yoder said he had never been to Washington, D.C., and that he was unaware the Capitol had been closed for nearly a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. He entered the building through a fire exit and said police were not actively preventing him from going inside.
Lamberth, the senior judge of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia who was appointed by President Ronald Reagan, didn’t accept that version of events and said Yoder “knowingly” broke several laws.
“Once inside the Capitol, he drew attention to himself by shouting to other rioters about how Trump supporters had ‘cave[d]’ on the certification, an overtly political message,” he wrote. “Yoder also knew that he was a highly visible member of the mob.”
Lamberth also repeatedly noted in his verdict that Yoder decided to go into the Capitol after his brothers told him that former Vice President Mike Pence “folded” by refusing to block the certification of the election and that other rioters were fighting with police.
Yoder made a speech inside the Capitol building where he said, “we’ve been so weak. We’ve lost any kind of credibility because all we do is cave” but also urged people not to riot or “do bad things.” In a video of his speech presented during the trial, Yoder stopped talking after it appeared no one was listening.
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