WASHINGTON — A former US military patron described by prosecutors as a Nazi sympathizer was convicted Friday of attacking the US Capitol in order to obstruct Congress from authenticating President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.
Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who worked as a security contractor on a Navy base when he joined a pro-Trump crowd on January 6, was also convicted of disorderly conduct and other misdemeanors.
Hale-Cusanelli took the stand in his defense, claiming he did not know Congress had met in the Capitol building.
“I know it sounds silly, but I’m from New Jersey,” Hale-Cusanelli said according to WUSA-TV. “In all my studies, I didn’t know there was an actual building called the ‘Capital.’ It’s embarrassing and silly.”
Hale-Cusanelli’s trial was the fifth before a jury and the seventh overall for the Capital Riot case. The first four juries unanimously found the riot defendants guilty of all charges. Roughly 300 others have pleaded guilty to crimes stemming from the riot, including conspiracy to treason and assault.
Prosecutors said Hale-Kusanelli openly supported white supremacist and anti-Semitic ideology and wore an Adolf Hitler-style mustache to work. On his cellphone, investigators found photos of him with the distinctive mustache and comb-over hairstyle associated with the Nazi leader.
Hale-Cusanelli had a “secret” security clearance for his job as a security contractor at Naval Weapons Station Earle in Colts Neck, New Jersey. He also lived at the base with a roommate who reported him to the Naval Criminal Investigation Service and secretly recorded a conversion about the Capitol riot.
The Justice Department’s motion to oppose the conditional release of Timothy Hale-Cusanelli is taken up May 24, 2022, ahead of his trial on charges of the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Capitol. (AP Photo/John Elswick)
During the trial’s opening statements on Tuesday, a Justice Department prosecutor said Hale-Cusanelli stormed the Capitol because he wanted to start a civil war and create “a clean slate.”
Defense attorney Jonathan Crisp told jurors that “groupthink” and “a desperate desire to be heard” prompted Hale-Cusanelli to pursue a crowd at the Capitol. Crisp described Hale-Cusanelli as a bombastic agitator who was prone to make “extreme statements to get attention”.
In a pre-trial court filing, prosecutors framed Hale-Kusanelli’s fanatical, anti-Semitic views as motivating factors for his involvement in the January 6 riots and his desire for civil war.
One Navy seaman said that Hale-Kusaneli had told him, “He will kill all the Jews and eat them for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and he will not need to season them because the salt from his tears.” Would make it quite tasty,” according to prosecutors.
Prosecutors said other colleagues recalled Hale-Kusanelli making derogatory remarks about women, black people and other minorities.
Prior to the trial, Crisp argued that any testimony regarding Hale-Kusanelli’s alleged statements about the Jewish people and his role in the US government would be “highly prejudicial in nature without any real value”.
Police stop a violent rebellion loyal to then-US President Donald Trump as they try to break down a police barrier at the Capitol in Washington, DC, January 6, 2021. (Julio Cortez / AP)
Crisp acknowledged that Hale-Cusanelli should not have entered the Capitol building.
“But the question of why he was there is important,” he told jurors on Tuesday.
Hale-Kusanelli was not charged with any violence or involvement in the destruction of property. He was convicted on five counts: obstructing an official proceeding, entering or remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly or destructive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in the Capitol Building, and a parade, demonstration or picketing in the Capitol building. .
The charge of obstructing is a felony. The rest are wicked.
Crisp said Hale-Cusanelli believed then-President Donald Trump’s false claims of plagiarism. But defense attorneys said Hale-Cusanelli went to Washington to protest peacefully wearing a suit, while several others wore tactical gear.
A video caught Hale-Cusanelli abusing police officers and shouting, “The revolution will be broadcast!”
“It was not a peaceful protest,” Assistant US Attorney Katherine Fifield said.
More than 800 people have been indicted for Capitol crimes stemming from the riots. Many of them are military veterans. Hale-Kusanelli is among the few defendants who were on active duty on January 6.
U.S. District Judge Trevor McFadden, who presided over Hale-Cusanelli’s trial, decided two other Capitol riot cases after hearing testimony without a jury. McFadden acquitted one defendant of all charges and partially acquitted the other after a bench trial.
Hale-Kusanelli was arrested less than two weeks after the attack and has been in prison since February 2021. Following his arrest, he was discharged from the US Army reserves and detained by a naval base.
