Staff Report –

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A Texas Trump supporter who joined rioters in the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 and tried to break into the Speaker’s Lobby and shut the power off in the Capitol was sentenced by a federal judge on Tuesday to nearly seven years in prison.

Christopher Grider, 41, of Eddy, Texas, was sentenced to 83 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release, and ordered to pay a fine of $812 along with $5,044 in restitution by Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly of U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., according to a press release from the U.S. Department of Justice.

Grider, who operates a vineyard in Central Texas, pleaded guilty last year to entering a restricted area and unlawfully parading at the Capitol. He went to trial on seven other charges, including civil disorder and violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds, was convicted in December on all counts.

According to court documents, on January 6, 2021, after marching through physical barricades and “AREA CLOSED” signs at the Peace Circle, Grider reached the scaffolding covering the northwestern stairway on the West Front of the Capitol. There, Grider watched as a line of police officers struggled to hold the mob back. Grider himself was tear gassed.

On the West Front, Grider also assisted other rioters in dismantling police barricades and turning at least one bike rack into a ladder. As Grider made his way up the stairway, he repeatedly turned around to beckon the mob forward. Once on the Upper West Terrace, Grider picked up a discarded Capitol Police helmet.

Grider entered the Capitol building through the Senate Wing Door less than two minutes after the Capitol building was first breached at that location. Once inside, Grider zeroed in on a utility panel, where he tried (unsuccessfully) to cut power to the Capitol building, yelling “Turn the power off!”

Grider next marched to the Crypt, where he and other rioters muscled their way through a line of Capitol Police officers. Grider then continued toward the House Chamber.

After ascending to the second floor, Grider again beckoned other rioters to join him.

“We gotta get into the Chamber!” he shouted. “This way, this way, this way!”

Within minutes, Grider reached a lobby area leading to the House Main Door. As the mob laid siege to those doors, Grider repeatedly offered up his hard black helmet to be used by the rioters as a weapon, brandishing it above his head, as other rioters yelled, “Use your helmet! Use your Kevlar!” and “We need to use our Kevlar to knock out those windows.”

A few minutes later, when the mob’s siege of the House Main Door stalled, Grider sprinted toward the Speaker’s Lobby Door. Only three Capitol Police officers, the Speaker’s Lobby glass doors, and some hastily amassed furniture on the other side of those doors stood between the mob and the evacuees.

Grider watched as another rioter punched the doors’ glass panes with his bare fists, only inches away from one of the officers. Grider then sought out that rioter’s attention, knocked on the helmet, and handed the helmet to that rioter. Moments later, that rioter violently banged the helmet against the Speaker’s Lobby’s glass doors, breaking the rightmost pane.

When a third rioter climbed through that opening, a Capitol Police lieutenant on the other side of the glass doors discharged one round, fatally wounding that third rioter, Ashli Babbitt, 35, an Air Force veteran from Southern California. Grider, who had set that chain of events in motion, stood only feet away.

The case was prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia. Valuable assistance was provided by U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Texas.

The case was investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the FBI’s San Antonio Field Office and the U.S. Capitol Police.

In March, Judge Kollar-Kotelly said in court that videos of the episode had clearly demonstrated “how Grider put himself at the center of this conflict, steps away from some of the most violent, lawless and reprehensible acts that occurred in the Capitol on that day.”

“How close can a person be to unquestionably violent and completely unacceptable lynch-mob-like acts of others, and still claim to be a nondangerous, truly innocent bystander?” she asked.

Grider’s lawyer, Brent Mayr, said that his client “truly regrets his actions on Jan. 6 and apologizes to his family, his community and, most importantly, his country.”

In the 28 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,000 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 320 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The investigation remains ongoing.

Anyone with tips can call 1-800-CALL-FBI (800-225-5324) or visit tips.fbi.gov.

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