US court jails Marine who performed Nazi salute during 2021 Capitol attack News
© WikiMedia (Kurt Kaiser)
US court jails Marine who performed Nazi salute during 2021 Capitol attack

The US District Court for the District of Columbia sentenced a former Marine Tyler Dykes on Friday to nearly five years in prison for assaulting police officers during the January 6 Capitol attack. On top of the imprisonment, Dykes received another 36 months of supervised release and a $22,000 fine.

Prosecutors from the federal government recommended a prison term of five years and three months for Dykes, emphasizing his role in instigating significant violence inside the Capitol, following his participation in former President Trump’s rally at the Ellipse in Washington DC. The prosecutors also noted that Dykes has shown a continuous interest in ideological violence, citing antisemitic and white supremacist content on his cell phone. Relatedly, Dykes were also convicted for involvement in the 2017 Charlottesville white nationalist rally.

His lawyers, on the other hand, requested a two-year prison sentence, noting that Dykes regretted and apologized for his actions in the Capitol riot and believes that they were illegal and indefensible.

Last year, the Department of Justice pointed out that Dykes breached 18 USC § 231(a)(3), which prohibits obstructing, impeding, or interfering with firefighters or law enforcement officers engaged in their official duties during a civil disorder.

In April, Dykes pleaded guilty to two felony charges — assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers and that the use of the police riot shield constituted a dangerous weapon.

Additionally, it was stated in the court proceedings that Dykes displayed a Nazi salute during the storming, accusations which he denied. Prosecutors noted, however, that the salute was captured on video.

Pro-Trump rioters stormed the US Capitol building in Washington DC on January 6, 2021, after former president Donald Trump addressed them with a speech that propagated election fraud disinformation. The riot interrupted the formal Congressional counting of electoral votes from the prior November 2020 election. Two years after the Capitol attack, the US House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol released its 845-page Final Report which concluded that the Capitol riot was the culmination of Trump’s election fraud disinformation campaign.

Since January 2021, over 1,400 individuals have faced federal charges stemming from the Capitol riot, with over 900 have been sentenced. Among the accused facing charges, more than 530 individuals are facing charges of assaulting or impeding law enforcement. The US Federal Bureau of Investigation stated that the investigation remains ongoing.

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