Man Jailed For Joining Capitol Riot After Tinder Date

A Delaware business owner has been sentenced to 30 days in jail for storming the US Capitol after seeing the riot break out on TV from a Tinder date and riding an Uber to join the mob attack, according to court records.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Hogan also ordered Jeffrey Schaefer on Friday to pay a $2,000 fine and $500 restitution for his participation in the January 6, 2021 riot in Washington.

On the eve of then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally on January 6, Schaefer drove from Delaware to northern Virginia to spend the night with a woman he had met on the app. Tinder online dating. The next day, he decided to take an Uber ride to the Capitol after seeing the riot unfold on TV at his date in Alexandria.

“He asked the Uber driver to drop him off near the west side of the Capitol and he approached the Capitol from that drop-off point,” Justice Department prosecutor Anita Eve wrote in a statement. a court record.

Schaefer entered the Capitol through a shattered window near the Senate wing doors, joined other rioters in chanting, and spent approximately 28 minutes inside the building before exiting through a doorway, prosecutors said. He posted several images of the riot on Facebook, including one showing a pile of destroyed media material.

Schaefer, 36, of Milton, Delaware, was arrested in January 2022. He pleaded guilty in August to one count of marching, demonstrating or picketing a capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by law. a maximum sentence of six months behind bars.

Defense attorney Joshua Insley noted that Schaefer was not charged with engaging in violence or destruction on Jan. 6, when Congress convened a joint session to certify the results of the president’s election victory. Joe Biden in 2020.

Schaefer owns a charter company based in Milton. Once a “committed supporter” of Trump, Schaefer now believes he was “manipulated and used by those in power and will never face consequences,” his lawyer said.

“As Mr. Schaefer accepts responsibility for his actions, he has been guided and encouraged at every step by an authority no less than the President of the United States and a majority of Republican Senators and Congressmen who have continued to repeating the ‘big lie.’ that the election was stolen by the Democrats,” Insley wrote.

More than 900 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Capitol riots. More than 460 of them have pleaded guilty, mostly to misdemeanors. More than 320 of them were sentenced, about half of them to prison terms ranging from seven days to 10 years.

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For full coverage of the Capitol Riot, go to https://www.apnews.com/capitol-siege