Yet another tourist who didn't know what they were doing and
didn't know it was illegal.
"A Florida man who grabbed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's podium and posed
for photographs with it during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on
Friday to more than two months in prison.
The image of Adam Johnson smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi's
podium went viral after the pro-Trump mob's attack on Jan. 6, 2021.
Johnson placed the podium in the center of the Capitol Rotunda, posed
for pictures and pretended to make a speech, prosecutors said.
After driving home, Johnson bragged that he “broke the internet” and was “finally famous,” prosecutors said. They argued that his actions at the Capitol “illustrate his sense of entitlement and privilege."
“The now-viral podium photo portrays Johnson as confident, arguably
gleeful, while converting government property to his own use during an
unlawful siege,” a prosecutor wrote in a court filing.
U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Johnson to 75 days in prison followed by one year of supervised release. The judge also ordered
Johnson to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service. Johnson will report to prison at a date to be determined.
Johnson told Walton that posing with Pelosi's podium was a “very stupid idea.”
“I bear no ill will toward her or her office at all,” Johnson said.
Walton said America is on a dangerous path when many citizens believe
that they “have a right to do whatever in order to have the person who
they want in power sitting in the White House."
“That's what we see in banana republics," the judge said. “That's what
we see in countries like we're experiencing now over in Ukraine. That's
where we're headed if we don't do something to stop it. And I don't know
what we do to stop it.”
Prosecutors said they received a tip during plea negotiations with
Johnson that he intended to publish a memoir. His plea agreement
includes an unusual provision that requires him to relinquish
compensation from any book, script, song, interview or product bearing
his name or likeness, for up to five years.
Prosecutors recommended sentencing Johnson to three months'
imprisonment, one year of supervised release, a $5,000 fine and 60 hours
of community service. Johnson's attorneys asked the judge to sentence
him to one year of probation with credit for the weekend that he spent
in jail after his arrest.
The defense lawyers said Johnson didn't know that the podium belonged to
Pelosi when he moved it from a cloak room.
“Arguably, if he latched onto some other piece of government furniture
for his photo opportunity jail time would not even be a consideration,”
they wrote in a court filing.
Johnson was arrested two days after the deadly riot. He pleaded guilty
in November to a charge of entering and remaining in a restricted
building or ground, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison."
https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/wireStory/rioter-carrying-pelosis-podium-viral-photo-prison-83111113
TB
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