CNN
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The person prosecutors say was the primary rioter to enter the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, has been sentenced to 53 months behind bars.
Michael Sparks, from Kentucky, was convicted in March by a Washington, DC, jury on a number of counts, together with disorderly conduct within the Capitol.
When Sparks breached the Capitol, prosecutors wrote in courtroom filings earlier than his sentencing Tuesday, it instantly set off “the compelled interruption of the certification of the 2020 Electoral School vote rely and threatening the peaceable switch of energy after the 2020 Presidential election.”
“One may say Sparks helped gentle the fireplace that day,” prosecutors continued, “utilizing his preparation and planning — together with his protecting physique armor — to metal himself towards the officers trying to carry again the mob.”
Sparks was a part of the mob that rushed to the Senate wing door of the Capitol on January 6 and was the primary to climb into the constructing via a window damaged by one other rioter.
Prosecutors additionally say that he referred to as for a civil warfare in on-line posts and bought a rifle within the days earlier than the riot.
Two weeks earlier than the riot, Sparks wrote on-line above a picture of then-Speaker of the Home Nancy Pelosi and then-Minority Chief of the Senate Chuck Schumer, “How about we the folks drag you out by your face.”