by TO former employee of the National Security Agency has been sentenced to two weeks in prison for storming the United States Capitol along with associates described by authorities as fellow supporters of a white nationalist movement.
Federal prosecutors had recommended 30 days in jail for paul lovley, who lived in Halethorpe, Maryland. Lovley, 24, was working as an information technology specialist for the NSA before the riots on Jan. 6, 2021, according to prosecutors.
NSA spokesman Cameron Potts referred questions about Lovley and his employment to the Justice Department, which gave no further details in court documents about the nature of his government work.
US District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Lovley Tuesday to 14 days behind bars, to be served over the course of seven weekends, along with three years of probation, according to a spokesperson for the US Attorney’s Office. for the District of Columbia.
Lovley pleaded guilty in February to marching, demonstrating or picketing a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum prison sentence of six months.
Lovley was charged along with four other men whom prosecutors described as “members” of the America First white nationalist movement. The movement’s leader is internet personality Nicholas Fuentes, known for promoting white supremacist and anti-Semitic views on his live broadcasts. His followers often call themselves “Groypers” or members of a “Groyper Army”.
“Groypers believe they are defending themselves against demographic and cultural changes that are destroying the ‘real America,’ a white, Christian nation,” Justice Department prosecutor Joseph Huynh wrote in a court filing. “Groypers try to normalize their ideology by aligning themselves with ‘Christianity’ and ‘traditional’ values, such as marriage and family.”
In November, former President Donald Trump came under fire for dining at his Mar-a-Lago club with Fuentes and Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West. Trump said he had “never met and knew nothing about” Fuentes before he arrived with Ye at his club.
Fuentes, who was outside the Capitol on January 6, is not charged with entering the building that day. Fuentes has not been charged with any riot-related crimes, but some of his supporters have.
Lovley was charged with co-defendants Joseph Brody, Thomas Carey, Jon Lizak and gabriel chase. The five men, all in their early 20s, met at Lovely’s home in Maryland on January 5, 2021. The next day, they went to Washington and attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally.
After other rioters stormed the Capitol, the five men entered the building through the doors of the Senate wing, joined the crowd in pushing police officers into the crypt, and entered a conference room for the office of then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, according to prosecutors. Brody then broke away from his group and entered the Senate chamber while Lovley and the others remained outside, prosecutors said.
After leaving the Capitol, Brody erected a metal barricade and appeared to use it to obstruct or assault a police officer, according to prosecutors. Before leaving the Capitol grounds, the group headed to an area where rioters destroyed and looted media equipment, prosecutors said.
In a letter addressed to the judgeLovley said he knows his actions on January 6 were “unbelievably irresponsible.”
“I’m sure I wouldn’t have even introduced myself if I knew ahead of time that the day was going to turn into what it did,” he wrote.
Defense attorney David Benowitz said Lovley moved from California to Maryland for unspecified “government work” after graduating from California State University, San Bernardino. Lovley has since moved out of state for a new job, according to his attorney.
“It is clear that Mr. Lovley is a man of great values and great promise who recognizes that he made the worst decision of his life on January 6, 2021,” Benowitz wrote in a court filing.
Carey, of Pittsburgh, Lizak of Huntington, New York, and Chase of Gainesville, Florida, pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor charge as Lovley. Last Tuesday, Kollar-Kotelly sentenced Carey to three years probation, including 14 days in jail. Chase is scheduled to be sentenced in July. A sentencing hearing for Lizak is set for October.
The charges against Brody, of Springfield, Virginia, have not been resolved.
More than 530 people have been sentenced for crimes related to January 6including at least three other indicted Capitol riots described as supporters of the America First movement.
As of October 2022, UCLA alumnus Christian Secorof Costa Mesa, California, was sentenced to three years and six months in prison for storming the Capitol while waving an America First flag.
Brandon Cavanaughwho also carried an America First flag to the Capitol, was sentenced in April to 14 days behind bars.
Riley June Williams, who invaded Pelosi’s office with other rioters. he was sentenced in March to three years in prison. Prosecutors said Williams became “obsessed” with Fuentes and considered himself a member of his “Groyper Army”.
Judges have sentenced more than 300 Capitol riot defendants who pleaded guilty to the same misdemeanor charge as Lovley and three of his America First associates. Just under half of them received prison terms, according to an Associated Press review of court records.
