WASHINGTON — The Justice Department wants a Maryland man to spend more than five years in prison for forcibly resisting police who were trying to remove him from inside the U.S. Capitol Building on Jan. 6, 2021.
Daniel Egtvedt, of Garrett County, was convicted in January of four felony counts and three misdemeanors, including obstructing the joint session of Congress and forcibly resisting or impeding law enforcement. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper, who presided over Egtvedt’s bench trial, acquitted him of two additional counts of committing an act of physical violence and ruled prosecutors had not shown Egtvedt had assaulted any of the officers.
Egtvedt entered the U.S. Capitol Building during the second breach of the Senate Wing doors after he’d already been pepper sprayed by an unidentified police officer. After entering, he berated police and called them “traitors” and urged others to come to the Capitol to “reclaim” the country. He also screamed “Shoot me!” at officers who were attempting to remove him from the building. All of that, Cooper said, was sufficient evidence Egtvedt intended to obstruct the joint session of Congress.
“Obstructing was not an unintended consequence of defendant’s trip to the Capitol,” Cooper said, “it was the purpose.”
Cooper also said he found Egtvedt’s argument that he believed he had permission to enter the building from former President Donald Trump “unpersuasive,” and said even compared to other riot cases, Egtvedt’s behavior inside the building was notable.
“Even among the conduct on Jan. 6, Mr. Egtvedt stands out as being particularly loud and disruptive,” Cooper said.
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On Thursday, prosecutors filed a sentencing memo asking for Egtvedt to serve 64 months, or five years and four months, in prison for his role in the riot. They said that falls within the 57-71 month recommended sentencing guideline they calculated for his offense.
The DOJ’s desired sentencing guideline for Egtvedt is higher than the 30-37 months calculated by the probation office. In the defense’s memo, Egtvedt’s attorney, Kira Anne West, asked Cooper to vary downward from probation’s calculation and impose a sentence of time served for the approximately two months he spent in pre-trial detention, a period of home confinement and two years of supervised release. West said Cooper should consider the effect former President Donald Trump’s lies about the 2020 election had on Egtvedt’s decision to enter the Capitol.
“Mr. Egtvedt had no idea he was being used as a pawn in a game far more sophisticated and complex than anyone could imagine,” West wrote.
Egtvedt was scheduled to be sentenced Wednesday in D.C. District Court. He’ll receive credit for the two months he spent in pre-trial detention before being release.
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