A Memphis-area man has been found guilty on July 21 of felony and misdemeanor offenses for his actions amid the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Lawmakers gathered at the U.S. Capitol for a joint session of Congress to count and certify electoral votes for the 2020 presidential election on Jan. 6, 2021. But proceedings in the chambers were temporarily interrupted when a sizable group of protesters entered the Capitol building and its surrounds. Thousands of protesters, mostly peaceful, remained outside.
Matthew Bledsoe, of Olive Branch, Mississippi, was found guilty by a jury in the District of Columbia of one felony offense of obstruction of an official proceeding, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced in a release.
The 38-year-old was also found guilty of four misdemeanor offenses: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a Capitol Building; disorderly conduct in a Capitol Building; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol Building.
The charge carries a maximum of 20 years in prison and potential fines. The latter four misdemeanor offenses carry a combined maximum of three years in prison and potential fines.
Bledsoe, who previously resided in Cordova, Tennessee, was arrested on Jan. 13, 2021, just a week after the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
On Jan. 6, 2021, he had entered the Capitol grounds shortly after 2:13 p.m. and moved to the Capitol Building where he scaled a wall at the Upper Northwest Terrace and entered through a fire door at the Senate Wing, according to the Department of Justice.
Video at the trial showed Bledsoe saying, “In the Capitol. This is our house. We pay for this [expletive]. Where’s those pieces of [expletive] at?”
He spent about 22 minutes inside the Capitol Building, where he climbed a statue and was outside the corridor to the House Chamber and hallways near the Speaker’s Lobby. He left the building around 2:47 p.m.
“Within two hours, however, Bledsoe returned, lingering outside the East Rotunda Doors as law enforcement officers worked to secure the building and grounds,” the DOJ noted.
The FBI’s Memphis Field Office has been investigating the case, with assistance from the FBI’s Washington Field Office, the U.S. Capitol Police, and the Metropolitan Police Department.
Bledsoe is scheduled to be sentenced on Oct. 21.
The DOJ noted that more than 850 people have been arrested over criminal charges related to the U.S. Capitol breach. This includes over 260 people who have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.
Another three people died of what was ultimately determined to be natural causes. One of them was Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick who died on Jan. 7; he was initially believed to have died due to injuries caused by protesters, but was ultimately determined to have died due to strokes. The other two people were men in their 50s who died on Jan. 6 due to hypertensive atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
The fifth death involved a woman in her 30s, Rosanne Boyland. The D.C. medical examiner ruled her death as an accident from a drug overdose. But video unsealed in December 2021 confirmed that Boyland was crushed and trampled when the crowd of protesters was pushed out of the tunnel, then repeatedly struck by police as she lay unconscious.
It is unclear how many protesters may have been injured as a result of police actions on the day.
