Trumper Who Bragged He Broke the Internet with Pelosi’s Podium Goes To Jail
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Florida resident Adam Johnson, who took part in the January 6, 2021 riots at the Capitol Building and bragged on social media about breaking the internet with a photo of himself holding Nancy Pelosi’s podium was sentenced to 75 days in prison.
The stay-at-home father of five boys, traveled to D.C. in support of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, which Trump lost to President Joe Biden. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie B. Walton sentenced Johnson to prison on Friday, saying Johnson made “a mockery” of the events by grabbing Pelosi’s lectern and played an active role in the attack. Walton said he just couldn’t overlook Johnson’s behavior, which he said was deserving of a period of incarceration. Johnson will get credit for some time he’s already served, and will also pay a $5,000 fine.
“We’re on a dangerous slide in America,” Walton said Friday, calling what happened on Jan. 6 something you’d expect to “see in banana republics.” Walton asked Johnson how he could hold himself out as a good role model for his five children when he came to D.C. and did what he did on Jan. 6.
Johnson, speaking to the court on Friday, said he’d been “nothing but cooperative” with the government since his arrest, and said his actions demonstrated that he was apologetic and was “ashamed” to have been a part of the Capitol riot.
Johnson said he recognized that if he did what he did in another country, he’d be “on a firing wall instead of a courtroom.”
He claimed he had no intent to harm Pelosi.
“If I did find her, I would ask for a selfie with her, if anything,” Johnson said.
Johnson pleaded guilty to a criminal count of entering and remained in a restricted building or grounds, admitting that he unlawfully entered the Capitol after witnessing battles with police outside the building, and then grabbed Pelosi’s podium “because he believed it would make a good prop for a picture.” Johnson also admitted that he shouted that a bust of George Washington would be “a great battering ram” as rioters attempted to break into the floor of the U.S. House, where members of Congress were still present.
