A man who was photographed carrying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-Calif.) lectern as rioters stormed the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced on Friday to serve 75 days in prison.
District Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Adam Johnson on Friday, noting that Johnson made “a mockery” of the events that unfolded that day and that he could not overlook his behavior, NBC News reported. Johnson will be credited for some time he has already served. He must also pay a $5,000 fine.
“We’re on a dangerous slide in America,” Walton said Friday, according to NBC News. He also compared the Jan. 6 Capitol riot to something you would “see in banana republics.”
Johnson expressed remorse for his actions in court on Friday and said that his actions since have shown that he was “ashamed” of the role he played in the riot. He also expressed that he had no desire to harm Pelosi at the time and recognized that had he done the same thing in another country he would be “on a firing wall instead of a courtroom,” NBC News reported.
“If I did find [Pelosi], I would ask for a selfie with her, if anything,” Johnson added, according to the news outlet.
In November, Johnson pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
He traveled from Tampa, Fla., to Washington in January 2021 ahead of former President Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. Johnson was among hundreds of other rioters who walked to the Capitol and ultimately forced their way inside as part of an effort to prevent Congress from certifying the results of the 2020 presidential election.