A social media influencer behind the #WalkAway movement got home detention for his role in the Capitol riot

• Brandon Straka admitted to encouraging the pro-Trump mob to storm the Capitol on January 6.
• Straka's lawyer said DOJ questioned him about a possible "organized conspiracy" involving Trump.

A social media influencer who spoke at a pro-Trump rally the day before the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol, was sentenced Monday to three months of home detention after pleading guilty to a disorderly conduct charge stemming from his participation in last year's deadly attack on the Capitol.

Brandon Straka, a onetime New York City hairstylist, admitted in October that he joined the pro-Trump mob and encouraged rioters on January 6 as they forced their way inside the Capitol. In a video he recorded, Straka could be heard yelling, "go, go, go" as the mob advanced into the Capitol, and he said, "take it, take it," as Trump supporters wrested a riot shield away from a police officer, according to court documents.

Handing down the sentence, Judge Dabney Friedrich pushed back against Straka's claims that he did not fully understand the magnitude of the violence on January 6. Friedrich noted that Straka had called for the rioters to "hold the line" and was near a police officer whose shield was ripped away by the pro-Trump mob.

"It's very hard to draw that conclusion, looking at the video footage and particularly his comments at the time, and immediately thereafter," Friedrich said.

"He seemed to buy into this notion that it's OK to storm the Capitol," the judge added.

Friedrich's sentence included three years of probation. The period of home confinement fell one month short of the four months prosecutors had recommended going into Straka's sentencing.

In court on Monday, federal prosecutor Brittany Reed highlighted Straka's wide following on social media and public comments — going back to December 2020 — calling for civil war and predicting violence on January 6.

"Not only did he predict it, he encouraged it," Reed said.

Reed acknowledged that Straka did not enter the Capitol on January 6, but she said that was only because of the tear gas that met him as he neared a door into the building.

Straka's defense lawyer, Bilal Essayli, said the Justice Department was improperly bootstrapping "inflammatory allegations" onto a guilty plea to a misdemeanor disorderly conduct charge.

"I think it's a really dangerous path the government is going down and what we view as the criminalization of political activities," Essayli said.

Days before the sentencing hearing, Straka's lawyer revealed in a court filing that the Justice Department was inquiring about a possible "organized conspiracy" involving Trump and his inner circle.

"During the interviews the government was focused on establishing an organized conspiracy between defendant, President Donald J. Trump, and allies of the former president, to disrupt the Joint Session of Congress on January 6," Essayli wrote, while adding that Straka had "answered all questions truthfully and denied the existence of any such plot."

After months of silence from the Justice Department, the defense lawyer's filing offered a rare public indication that federal prosecutors were examining whether Trump played a role in the violence of January 6. The court filing came weeks after Attorney General Merrick Garland, without mentioning Trump, said the Justice Department was committed to "holding all January 6 perpetrators, at any level, accountable under law — whether they were present that day or were otherwise criminally responsible for the assault on our democracy."

The Justice Department has charged more than 700 alleged participants in the Capitol siege, including 11 members of the far-right Oath Keepers group who stand accused of seditious conspiracy in connection with the attack.

Straka gained some measure of prominence in Trumpworld after launching the #WalkAway movement, which seeks to persuade Democratic voters to leave the party. On January 5, 2021, he spoke at a pro-Trump rally in Washington, DC, that featured the conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and other right-wing figures.

At the close of his sentencing, Straka said the Justice Department's court filings paint the picture of an individual who couldn't be more "dissimilar" to who he is.

"I am sincerely sorry to all of the people of America, even the ones who absolutely hate my guts and hated me long before January 6. I'm sorry that I was present in any way at an event that led anybody to feel afraid, that brought shame and embarrassment on our country, and that served absolutely no purpose other than to further tear away at the already heartbreaking divide in this country," Straka said.

"I'm deeply sorry and ashamed for being present at an event that sent members of Congress running in fear to evacuate a building," he added. "I can sincerely say I would never intend for such a thing to happen, but nonetheless it did."

Friedrich replied that she hoped Straka had "learned a lesson" from the experience and that he would use his social media presence to help unify the country.