WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump supporter who filmed himself assaulting police officers and breaking into the Senate chamber during the Jan. 6 riot pleaded guilty Friday to two felony charges.
Tennessee resident Ronald Sandlin, 35, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding certain officers.
Sandlin's friends and co-conspirators, Nathaniel DeGrave and Josiah Colt, previously pleaded guilty: DeGrave to the same two felonies as Sandlin, Colt to felony obstruction.
The trio attended the "Stop the Steal" rally in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6, but watched Trump's speech from a TGI Fridays in Virginia where they were having lunch. After they arrived in D.C., Sandlin repeatedly referred to the U.S. Capitol as the "State Capitol building" before storming the building as alarms blared, court documents show. He then joined the mob to try to open fire doors to let more rioters in, grabbing an officer’s helmet in the process.
“Get out of the way! Your life is not worth it today,” Sandlin told officers, as he recorded himself. “You’re going to die, get out of the way!”
After rioters made their way to the Senate, Sandlin began shoving officers who were trying to lock the doors to the Senate gallery. "Don't you lock another door!" he yelled at them, telling other rioters to "grab the door."
Once inside the Senate chamber, Sandlin celebrated with a selfie video. "We took it. We did it," he said, while crying and wheezing inside the Senate gallery. He later smoked marijuana in the Capitol rotunda, declaring that he'd "made history" and that this was "our house," according to court documents.
Sandlin also stole a book, and attempted to steal an oil painting, but other rioters prevented him from doing so.
Sandlin had solicited donations for his trip to D.C. on a fundraising website, writing that he needed support of "Patriots Defending Out Country On Jan 6th."
More than 850 people have been arrested in connection with the Capitol attack, and over 350 have pleaded guilty.
Earlier this week, a bodybuilder who dragged an officer down the steps of the Capitol pleaded guilty, and a judge sentenced one of the rioters who assaulted former officer Michael Fanone to more than seven years in federal prison.
