- A Capitol rioter who told Insider it was "really fun" was sentenced to 14 months in prison.
- Thomas Adams Jr., 41, was previously found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting.
A Capitol rioter who told an Insider reporter he had a "really fun time" storming the US Capitol was sentenced to 14 months in prison and 36 months of supervised release.
Thomas Adams Jr., 41, was one of the thousands of protesters who traveled to Washington, DC, to attend President Donald Trump's January 6, 2021, rally. In January, Adams was found guilty of obstruction of an official proceeding and aiding and abetting, two felonies.
Following Trump's speech, much of his audience descended upon the Capitol building intending to disrupt Congress from counting the electoral votes from the presidential election.
According to Adams' statement of facts from the Department of Justice, he entered the Capitol building through a door opened by protesters who gained access to the building by breaking a window. Adams told investigators in an interview that he "did not go into the Capitol building with an agenda" and did not break anything in the Capitol.
After leaving the Capitol building, Adams was flagged down by a freelancer at Insider, Abigail Higgins, and agreed to do a short interview and shared cell phone footage from the day. He told Insider his experience in the Capitol "was a really fun time" and "hilarious." A little more than three months after storming the Capitol, Adams was arrested and charged with three crimes.
The statement of facts in his case directly pointed to Insider's reporting on several occasions to help identify Adams Following Adams' arrest, Higgins documented her feelings in an essay about the FBI using her work to charge someone.
In February 2023, after being found guilty and as he awaited his sentencing hearing, Adams told The State Journal-Register that he "wouldn't change anything" he did on January 6, 2021. He said, "To this day, even though I had to admit guilt, don't feel like I did what the charge is."