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Michigan Man Sentenced for Obstruction of Official Proceeding
A Michigan man was sentenced to 9 months in prison for his role in the breach of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
Anthony Puma, 50, of Brownstown, Michigan, pleaded guilty on August 30, 2022, to obstruction of an official proceeding. In addition to the prison term, U.S. District Court Judge Paul L. Friedman sentenced Puma to 2 years of supervised release, a $500 fine, and restitution of $2,000.
According to court documents, Puma strapped a Go-Pro camera to his head and marched from his hotel near Freedom Plaza to the Capitol. After entering the Capitol’s restricted area, Puma approached a wall on the Capitol’s west side and urged other rioters in front of him to move forward and clear the way for others attempting to scale the wall.
Puma then scaled a different wall on the north side of the Capitol and reached the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace. As he approached the Capitol’s West Front on the Senate side, he told other rioters in the mob that he was going to ignore the curfew, stating, ‘I just scaled that [expletive] wall.’ He also said, ‘They probably evacuated everybody already here.’
Minutes later, Puma entered the Capitol building through a shattered window near the Senate Wing Door. He then marched through a corridor toward the Crypt of the Capitol. Along the way, Puma entered a Senator’s office, where other rioters were smoking marijuana. Puma asked if he could join them. Puma next took another detour, this time to enter another Congressional room where other rioters were congregating.
After exiting the Capitol building, Puma began livestreaming videos from his cell phone on social media. In one video, Puma boasted: ‘We got tear gassed. Now we just tried storming it again, and we got pepper sprayed.’
The case was investigated by the FBI’s Detroit and Washington Field Offices, with valuable assistance provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department. In the 26 months since January 6, 2021, more than 999 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Key Facts
- State: Washington DC
- Category: Violent Crime
- Source: DOJ Press Release â†â€â€
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