Thread by @ZoeTillman

Hello from Judge Thomas Hogan's virtual courtroom, where a plea hearing is set to begin soon in the case of Jan. 6 def Josiah Colt. He was indicted on one felony for obstructing Congress + misdemeanors.

He's the guy photographed dangling from the Senate balcony:

Josiah Colt's charging docs: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2098…

And his indictment: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2047…

A plea hearing is also scheduled for right now before Judge Trevor McFadden in the case of Danielle Doyle, but the laws of time and space mean I won't also be dialing in to that

https://twitter.com/ZoeTillman/status/1414622062832926723

Josiah Colt is pleading guilty to the first count in his indictment, obstruction of an official proceeding, which is a felony. It carries a max of 20 years in prison, but it's extremely unlikely Colt is facing anything close to that (we'll hear his est'd sentencing range soon)

Colt's estimated advisory guidelines range for sentencing is 51 to 63 months in prison, Hogan says (keeping in mind that it's not binding on the judge, and Colt could argue for a term below that range)

Colt was connected to two other Jan. 6 defendants, Ronnie Sandlin and Nathaniel DeGrave, but they weren't charged jointly. As the feds noted in this doc in Sandlin's case s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2052… Colt isn't accused of assaulting police + turned himself in

But, as @emptywheel pointed out, some of the evidence did not look so great for Colt

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1415372649203748864

This is the second Jan. 6 plea deal where a defendant pleaded to a single count of obstructing an official proceeding. The first defendant, Paul Hodgkins, faces an advisory range between 15-21 mos. Once the plea agreement is filed we'll be able to see why Colt's range is higher

Colt's plea deal includes a cooperation agreement

Hogan says Colt has agreed to pay restitution in the amount of $1,000 — other felony plea deals have involved $2,000 in restitution and misdemeanor-only cases have involved $500

Hogan is reciting the statement of the offense in Colt's case, and so far a lot of it tracks what's in the court docs for Ronnie Sandlin and Nathaniel DeGrave, incl. this section about what guns, weapons, tactical gear they brought to DC

(That excerpt is from this govt filing in Sandlin's case: s3.documentcloud.org/documents/2052…)

A special experience hearing Judge Thomas Hogan (portrait below) recite the line, "Let's get to the Senate, bro" as he continues to read the statement of the offense

Colt doesn't dispute the statement of the offense, but insists to the judge that this post of him holding what looks like a gun and his response were "taken out of context" and were intended as "a joke, a funny joke"

https://twitter.com/emptywheel/status/1415372649203748864

Colt highlights the use of a smiley face emoji and says he explained it was a joke to the govt. Hogan wasn't interested in getting into that right now, could be something that comes up at sentencing (for a plea hearing, what matters is if he agrees with the recitation of facts)

Anyway, Colt's plea hearing is done, they're not going to set a sentencing date for now since he's agreed to cooperate and that's ongoing (a cooperation agreement often delays sentencing so the defendant can get the full benefit of whatever they give to the feds)