Guilty: A former Capitol police officer was convicted on a charge he obstructed the January 6 investigation

• A jury found former Capitol police officer Michael Riley guilty Friday of obstructing the investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack.
• The jury could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charge related to his urging the rioter to remove posts.

A jury found former Capitol police officer Michael Riley guilty Friday of obstructing the investigation into the January 6, 2021, attack on the building he was once sworn to protect, handing the Justice Department a victory in a unique and high-profile prosecution stemming from the insurrection.

The verdict came a year after Riley's indictment on charges he advised a Capitol rioter to delete social media posts placing him within the pro-Trump mob that besieged the Capitol to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election results. In their case against Riley, prosecutors also alleged that he later deleted his messages with the n0w-convicted Capitol rioter, Jacob Hiles, to destroy evidence of his obstruction.

The jury found Riley guilty on the obstruction charge linked to the deletion of Facebook messages with Hiles but could not reach a unanimous verdict on the charge related to his urging the rioter to remove posts. Judge Amy Berman Jackson declared a mistrial on that second obstruction charge.

Jurors told Insider upon leaving the courthouse that a single member of the panel objected to finding Riley guilty on the other obstruction charge. The jury's deliberation, which stretched from Tuesday afternoon to Friday, was the longest to date in a trial stemming from the January 6 attack.

Riley's defense lawyer, Christopher Macchiaroli, declined to comment on the verdict, noting his legal arguments for throwing out the charges were still pending before Jackson.

A 25-year veteran of the police force, Riley responded on January 6 to one of the pipe bombs found near the Capitol. He resigned from the Capitol police following his October 2021 indictment on two obstruction charges.

During the weeklong trial, his defense lawyer argued that Riley had been "duped" into believing that Hiles had only gone to the Capitol to document the events of January 6. In a risky move that has backfired against other January 6 defendants, Riley took the stand to testify in his own defense.

Riley told jurors that he was "embarrassed" about his communications with Hiles, who he claimed had misled him about the extent of his involvement in the January 6 attack on the Capitol.

But, in her closing argument Monday, federal prosecutor Anne McNamara dismissed Riley's explanation as little more than a "cover story."

"This defendant was not duped," McNamara said.

"Ladies and gentlemen, use your logic and common sense," she added. "That's absurd."

During the weeklong trial, prosecutors presented multiple messages Riley exchanged with Hiles beginning on January 7. 2021 — the day after the Capitol attack. In the first message, Riley introduced himself as a Capitol police officer and warned Hiles to delete social media posts placing him inside the Capitol on January 6.

"Hey Jake, im a capitol police officer who agrees with your political stance," Riley wrote to Hiles.

"Take down the part about being in the building they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to be charged," Riley added. "Just looking out!"

Hiles did not delete his social posts and received credit for preserving that evidence. Under a plea deal with prosecutors, Hiles admitted to a misdemeanor charge and was later sentenced to two years of probation.

In her closing argument, McNamara stressed that it didn't matter that Hiles never acted on Riley's advice to delete the Facebook posts. "The only thing that matters," she said, is that Riley tried to persuade Hiles to remove those posts.

"He did this in private because he didn't want anyone to know," she said.

Within weeks of striking up the Facebook correspondence, Riley learned that Hiles had been charged in connection with January 6 and questioned by the FBI. Hiles notified Riley in one message that the FBI was "very curious that I had been speaking to you."

Upon realizing he was "smack in the middle of the crosshairs" of the January 6 investigation, Riley then created a "cover story," McNamara said, and deleted his private messages with Hiles.

"He acted immediately to avoid being caught," she said.

Riley deleted the first message he sent Hiles, in which the then-Capitol police officer said he was "just looking out."

He also deleted another message sent in the weeks after the Capitol attack: "Federal court is no joke."