Florida restaurant denies involvement with ‘going to prison’ party for Jan. 6 rioter seen with Pelosi’s lectern

A Florida restaurant says an alleged “going to prison” party for a Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol rioter who was photographed with Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) lectern was only set up as a joke and was never going to take place.

Caddy’s Bradenton, located outside of Tampa, told The Hill the party was never going to be held at the restaurant and Adam Johnson, who has been sentenced to 75 days in jail over his role in the Capitol breach, had set up the Facebook event as an April Fool’s Joke.

“It has been reported falsely that Caddy’s has canceled this event, this event did not exist to cancel,” Caddy’s Bradenton said in a statement on Facebook. “We can’t control what is advertised on a personal Facebook page (Unassociated with Caddy’s) to take place on April Fools Day.”

The Facebook event, “Adam’s going to prison!,” was pulled from Facebook but at one point had 41 people slated to attend.

“Come help me celebrate my last Friday of freedom before I go to prison for the lamest charge in history,” the page read.

In a Facebook post, Johnson confirmed the event was an April Fool’s Joke and that it was “both sad and hilarious that the news covered this.”

“There is no party. Well at least not a public one,” he wrote. “Let this be a lesson to everyone. Cancel culture is real and the media is stoking the flames. Hopefully none of you are charged with anything so egregious as misdemeanor trespassing.”

Johnson, 38, was photographed holding Pelosi’s $1,000 lectern during the Capitol riot, and he was arrested two days later, according to the Department of Justice. He pleaded guilty to knowingly entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds in November.

More than 770 people in nearly all 50 U.S. states and Washington, D.C., have been arrested in connection to the Capitol riot.

—Updated Tuesday at 11:04 a.m.