A Baltimore man who claims he was the victim of human trafficking, prompting his support of former President Donald Trump, was sentenced to more than a year in prison on Aug. 22 for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Narayana Rheiner, 42, of Baltimore, was sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge Dabney L. Friedrich to 15 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution, according to the Department of Justice.
Mr. Rheiner pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to one count of interfering with law enforcement officers during a civil disorder on Nov. 4, 2022.
According to prosecutors, Mr. Rheiner traveled from his home in Baltimore to Washington on Jan. 6 with the intent to “protest Congress’ certification of the Electoral College.”
As officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department attempted to maintain a police line to prevent the protesters from advancing further into the restricted area of the Capitol, Mr. Rheiner allegedly went to the front of the police line and waved other rioters to come forward while yelling at some protesters to “push up” on the line.
Mr. Rheiner then allegedly “pushed against officers and grabbed an officer’s riot shield” before attempting to pull it away from the law enforcement official.
His alleged attempt to grab the police riot shield caused the officer to fall down a flight of stairs and onto the ground, court documents state.
Rheiner Suffered ‘PTSD’
Mr. Rheiner later entered the Capitol building, where he was subsequently sprayed by police with chemical irritants, prosecutors said. While standing in the building, one officer allegedly told Mr. Rheiner, “This is not the right way,” to which he allegedly responded, “It is the right way. We got to send a message.”He exited the building roughly seven minutes later through a broken window on the south side of the Senate Wing door.
Mr. Rheiner was arrested after law enforcement officials recognized him in a YouTube video of the Capitol riot, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Rheiner stated it was because of former President Donald Trump’s “hardline stance against human trafficking” that he supported him and was in “such an emotional state” on Jan. 6.
“Due to my PTSD at some point after the president’s speech, I went with everybody else toward the capitol building where other speakers were supposed to be setting up for the events that day. When I got there, to my surprise multiple security parameters had already been breached leaving only one more parameter,” he wrote in the letter.
Mr. Rheiner said that upon arriving at the Capitol building, he noticed people standing on top of scaffolding towers that were reserved for news and event staff for the inauguration, adding that the individuals were “calling out to the crowd to march forward tunneling everybody in toward a single location.”
Rheiner Recounts Events of Jan. 6
“I did not know at first what was going on, I heard what sounded like grenades going off which triggered my PTSD, and I witnessed other protesters being hit with nightsticks by crowd control officers,” he wrote.“Prior to the incident, I was in a verbal exchange with one of the police organizers. I stepped up to the line and I was grabbed along with others who were being hit by nightsticks I tried to pull away, that is when I was sprayed by mace, and I proceeded to grab the shield that eventually led to the police officer falling,” he continued.
The Baltimore resident said he then dropped the police shield and “retreated to where our militia forces were providing medical services to those of us who were on the front lines so that I could get water and neutralizer for the tear gas because I couldn’t see.”
Mr. Rheiner also apologized for his behavior toward the officer on Jan. 6 and insisted he misunderstood that the Capital building was open to the public after searching for its opening hours on the internet.
“By no means am I defending my actions that day or asking to get rewarded for good behavior but not punished for bad behavior or asking for a free pass. I could do 100 good things, but does that make it ok to look over that one bad thing? No, that is why I took it upon myself to continue to try and correct my behavior,” he concluded. “If anything, it helped me learn more about my own shortcomings and find a way to correct them.”
More than 1,100 people have been arrested in connection with the Jan. 6 riots in the 31 months since the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 350 individuals who have been charged with assaulting police, according to the Justice Department.
