The TABOR Committee supports the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights. We’re writing to remind you to claim your TABOR refund on this year’s tax return. To obtain between $19 and $118, be sure to claim your refund on page 6 of the state income tax report.

The state’s tax code is designed to bring in more and more money in good times, above what the TABOR limit allows. TABOR provides for automatic increases in tax revenue while preventing government from growing out of control and taking an ever-larger share of family and business budgets. When the TABOR limit is exceeded, tax law restores the over-collection back to you in the form of TABOR refunds. This year, the TABOR refund is rather small.

Your refund would have been about four times as large, except the legislature got sneaky in 2024 and opened a loophole that TABOR allowed by being flexible. They created a new welfare program, a redistribution, only available if there is a TABOR surplus.

Making a welfare program dependent on taking our refunds is also unfair to the people who get the subsidy, because they may come to depend on it, yet it will be jerked away entirely if the economy turns down. Better the program should be funded inside the state budget with transparency and certainty and in competition with all other state priorities. For more information, visit thetaborfoundation.org.

Jason Bailey, Denver 

Kafer column should serve as a voter guide

Re: “Trump is taking his losing streak out on Colo.,” Feb. 15 commentary

Now is a good time to clip and save Krista Kafer’s assessment of what a Donald Trump presidency has meant for Colorado after a little more than one year: retribution. Be sure to read, clip and save for making voting choices in November. Keep her words available for you and your voting friends and relatives, as they offer inspiration and evidence of what your vote means for this year and the future of the state.

David W. Dent, Broomfield

I do not think, therefore, I do not am

Re: “The ugly sides of AI,” Jan. 25 commentary

My wife noted that Jeffco schools were not in session on Friday before Presidents Day, and I responded that with AI, it doesn’t take long to get answers. That morphed into a discussion of the learning process: answers versus thinking through problems. Technology dumbs us down, so we become dependent upon it (think: GPS v. map and compass).

I often wonder whether young people are being deprived of learning how to think and so just rely on technology to get by. AI makes that problem worse, amplified by social media. If schools no longer teach the process of thinking through problems to get real-world solutions, then we become totally dependent upon technology (especially AI) for everything. And, if we do not think, evolution will eliminate our ability to think (we do not am).

So, as we relinquish control over our lives and our environment to technology, and AI learns to do the “thinking” that we no longer do, where does that lead? Are we making it easy for AI to destroy the human race, given the probability that AI already “knows” that we are the problem and must be eliminated?

It is no longer science fiction. We are making it a reality. Not just possible, but probable, maybe inevitable. Humans need water and clean air; AI just needs data centers and electricity. Think about that, or do not am.

Greg Scott, Evergreen

Former V.P. Pence should speak out

Former vice president Mike Pence has the historic opportunity to do what civil rights hero John Lewis called “good trouble.” He could do that by simply telling the truth about President Trump and especially about the January 6 rebellion.

Good trouble would help Mike Pence join the members of the “Profiles in Courage” gang.

David L Stevenson, Denver 

To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit online or check out our guidelines for how to submit by email or mail.

That evening, after Gonell spent time with family and took his dog on a long walk, his phone started to blow up with calls. He had messages from federal prosecutors, FBI agents and the federal Bureau of Prisons — all letting him know that the new president had just who had been convicted for their actions at the Capitol on . The pardons included rioters who had injured Gonell as he and other officers tried to protect the building.

“They told me that people I testified against were being released from prison,” Gonell said. “And to be mindful.”

Gonell was one of the officers who that day as Congress was certifying Democrat Joe Biden’s victory and hundreds of Trump’s supporters , echoing his false claims of a stolen election. Gonell was dragged into the crowd by his shoulder straps as he tried to fight people off. He almost suffocated. In court, he to his shoulder and foot that still bother him to this day.

“They have tried to erase what I did” with the pardons and other attempts to play down the violent attack, Gonell said. “I lost my career, my health, and I’ve been trying to get my life back.”

Five years since the siege, Gonell and some of the other police officers who fought off the rioters are still coming to terms with what happened, especially after Trump was decisively elected to a second term last year and granted those pardons. Their struggle has been compounded by statements from the Republican president and some GOP lawmakers in Congress that the officers encountered.

“It¶¶Òőap been a difficult year,” said Officer Daniel Hodges, a Metropolitan Police Department officer who was also injured as he fought near Gonell in a tunnel on the West Front. Hodges was attacked several times, crushed by the rioters between heavy doors and beaten in the head as he screamed for help.

“A lot of things are getting worse,” Hodges said.

An evolving narrative

More than 140 police officers were injured during the fighting on Jan. 6, which turned increasingly brutal as the hours wore on.

Former Capitol Police Chief Thomas Manger took over the department six months after the riot. He said in a recent interview that many of his officers were angry when he first arrived, not only because of injuries they suffered but also “they resented the fact that they ” to deal with the unexpectedly violent crowd.

Several officers who fought the rioters told The Associated Press that the hardest thing to deal with has been the effort by many to , despite a documenting the carnage.

Trump has called the rioters he pardoned, including those who were most violent toward the police, “patriots” and “hostages.” He called their convictions for harming the officers and breaking into the building “a grave national injustice.”

“I think that was wrong,” Adam Eveland, a former District of Columbia police officer, said of Trump’s pardons. If there were to be pardons, Eveland said, Trump’s administration should have reviewed every case.

“I’ve had a hard time processing that,” said Eveland, who fought the rioters and helped to push them off the Capitol grounds.

The pardons “erased what little justice there was,” said former Capitol Police Officer Winston Pingeon, who was part of the force’s Civil Disturbance Unit on Jan. 6. He left the force several months afterward.

Pushback from lawmakers and the public

Hodges and Gonell have been speaking out about their experiences since July 2021, when they before the Democratic-led House committee that investigated Jan 6. Since then, they have received support but also backlash.

At a Republican-led Senate hearing in October on political violence, Hodges testified again as a witness called by Democrats. After Hodges spoke about his experience on Jan. 6, Sen. Peter Welch, D-Vt., asked the other witnesses whether they supported Trump’s pardons of the rioters, including for those who injured Hodges. Three of the witnesses, all called by Republicans, raised their hands.

“I don’t know how you would say it wasn’t violent,” says Hodges, who is still a Washington police officer.

It has not just been politicians or the rioters who have doubted the police. It also is friends and family.

“My biggest struggle through the years has been the public perception of it,” Eveland said, and navigating conversations with people close to him, including some fellow police officers, who do not think it was a big deal.

“It¶¶Òőap hard for me to wrap my head around that, but ideology is a pretty powerful thing,” he said.

Improvements in safety and support

As police officers struggled in the aftermath, Manger, the former Capitol Police chief, said the department had to figure out how to better support them. There were no wellness or counseling services when he arrived, he said, and they were put in to place.

“The officers who were there and were in the fight — we needed to make sure that they got the help that they needed,” Manger said.

Manger, who retired in May, also oversaw major improvements to the department¶¶Òőap training, equipment, operational planning and intelligence. He said the Capitol is now “a great deal safer” than it was when he arrived.

“If that exact same thing happened again, they would have never breached the building, they would have never gotten inside, they would have never disrupted the electoral count,” Manger said.

Pingeon, the former Capitol Police officer, said he believes the department is in many ways “unrecognizable” from what it was on Jan. 6 and when he left several months later.

“It was a wake-up call,” he said.

Pressing on

Pingeon, who was attacked and knocked to the ground as he tried to prevent people from entering the Capitol, said Jan. 6 was part of the reason he left the department and moved home to Massachusetts. He has dealt with his experience by painting images of the Capitol and his time there, as well as advocating for nonviolence. He said he now feels ready to forgive.

“The real trauma and heartache and everything I endured because of these events, I want to move past it,” he said.

Gonell left the Capitol Police because of his injuries. He has not returned to service, though he hopes to work again. He wrote a book about his experience, and he said he still has post-traumatic stress disorder related to the attack.

While many of the officers who were there have stayed quiet about their experiences, Eveland said he decided that it was important to talk publicly about Jan. 6 to try to reach people and “come at it from a logical standpoint.”

Still, he said, “I’ve had to come to terms with the fact that just because something happened to me and was a major part of my world doesn’t mean that everyone else has to understand that or even be sympathetic to that.”

He added: “The only thing I can do is tell my story, and hopefully the people who respect me will eventually listen.”

All 12 Republicans in the Senate and all 22 in the House voted against the amendment. House Republicans turned their backs in protest as the resolution was being read on the House floor Friday and then filibustered the resolution for the next several hours. The Senate approved the resolution earlier this month.

Democrats, who occupy nearly two-thirds of the seats in the state legislature, universally supported the condemnation. (One Democratic representative voted no accidentally, then signed on as a co-sponsor of the resolution to signal her support.)

“We need to stand up and protect the rule of law and our democratic norms. That is critical,” said Rep. Javier Mabrey, a Denver Democrat.

One of Trump’s first acts as he started his second term last month was more than 1,500 people involved in the Jan. 6 riot at the Capitol. Following months of lies asserted by Trump and others about his loss, a mob of people stormed the building to disrupt the certification of the 2020 presidential election. They smashed windows, broke into congressional members’ offices and attacked Capitol police officers.

More than 100 police officers were injured, one and several others . A Trump supporter, Ashli Babbitt, was shot and killed during the riot as she tried to climb through a broken window of a barricaded Capitol doorway. More than 1,200 people were convicted in connection with the riot.

Sen. Nick Hinrichsen, a Pueblo Democrat, introduced — titled “Condemnation of January 6 Insurrection Pardons” — on the Senate floor on Feb. 10. He invoked his time in the Army and serving in Iraq, as well as friends there who died in service to the country and the Constitution.

The Jan. 6 riot was a direct attack on the country’s founding document, he said, and pardoning those responsible was in insult to that service and sacrifice. 

“Every justification to either endorse or sidestep what happened on Jan. 6, 2021, is rooted in lies,” Hinrichsen said. “So colleagues, if we cannot, regardless of party, muster the courage to speak with truth about the greatest assault on this Constitution from within our own citizenry in 160 years — or condemn the aid and comfort now given to its enemies, who sought to render the sacrifices of those who gave their lives in its defense to have been in vain — then any words of solemnity to that sacrifice are nothing but hollow, insulting utterances. 

“I have no desire to sit and smile politely or (engage in) such performance, and I ask for a bipartisan aye vote.”

While every Republican in the Senate voted against the resolution, only Sen. Mark Baisley, of Woodland Park — — spoke against it. He called it “an inappropriate and shameful use of the resolution process and beneath the dignity of this legislative body.”

The resolution became an explicit flashpoint in the House when it was heard Friday. Republicans were intent on dragging out the debate. Members argued the resolution didn’t address problems the state is facing, such as the high cost of living, and was being wielded as as political wedge.

“Is this resolution designed to actually condemn someone and his actions, and make some moral statement about what he did or his leadership?” said Rep. Stephanie Luck, a Penrose Republican. “Or is this just political theater designed for a particular constituency, who right now is spinning a little bit because the election results this last November didn’t go their way?”

She later listed off the names of for their roles in the attack, including for kicking, punching and dragging police officers. Though of , Luck said Friday that “the vast majority” of Jan. 6 rioters “walked around the people’s house” and “took a little tour.”

Though Republican lawmakers accused Democrats of wasting time, Rep. Brandi Bradley, a Littleton Republican, that Republicans were planning to “fight for six hours and (Democrats) won’t be able to pass any bills!!!!”

The House Republicans’ filibuster lasted more than five hours. Democrats then brought forward a bill regulating the sale of gun ammunition — which Republicans were also set to oppose at length — in the late afternoon.

Rep. Scott Bottoms, a Colorado Springs Republican and declared gubernatorial candidate, said he would use the resolution as a campaign issue and predicted it would win him hundreds of thousands of votes.

Mabrey defended the urgency of the resolution. It is a declaration of the state’s values, he said, and the country’s values.

“It is a violation of the norms of our country that the president pardoned all these people — people who assaulted police officers. (Trump) is saying he does not want to let justice happen,” Mabrey said. 

A Colorado judge in 2023 found Trump engaged in insurrection for his actions around the Jan. 6 riot, and the Colorado Supreme Court found he should be disqualified from the 2024 ballot because he violated the U.S. Constitution’s insurrection clause.

The U.S. Supreme Court overruled the Colorado court¶¶Òőap ban on Trump from the ballot but left the insurrection finding in place. There has been no formal conviction of Trump on the basis of insurrection, however.

At least 20 defendants charged with or convicted of joining the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol have asked federal judges for permission to attend President-elect Trump’s second inauguration Monday in Washington, D.C., according to an Associated Press review of court records.

The majority can go. Several others cannot.

In most cases, Justice Department prosecutors have argued that Capitol riot defendants shouldn’t be able to return to the scene of their crimes while they’re under the court¶¶Òőap supervision.

“What¶¶Òőap past is prologue, and the defendants could easily find themselves in another situation where they engage in mob violence,” in opposing a .

At least 11 defendants have received the court¶¶Òőap permission to attend the inauguration, a day when Trump may issue . Judges have denied requests made by at least eight others. One request was pending on Saturday.

Many other convicted Capitol rioters may be free to attend if they have completed their sentences. Typically, those who remain under the court¶¶Òőap supervision after an arrest, a probation sentence or release from prison must get a judge’s approval to travel outside their home district.

Among those who can attend is , a Pennsylvania woman accused of posting social media messages calling for the execution of her political opponents in the days leading up to the riot. Lee was charged in August 2021, was convicted of four misdemeanors after a trial in October and is scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 27.

Justice Department prosecutor Carlos Valdivia argued that Lee’s return to Washington would endanger Capitol police officers and “create an absurd situation.”

“Lee’s presence in D.C. was restricted for years to keep the community safe, but in a few days, she would be allowed to return to attend a ceremony that demands heightened security,” .

Magistrate Judge Zia Faruqui approved Lee’s request, noting that she isn’t accused of engaging in violence and has complied with her release conditions. The magistrate said Lee “is coming to celebrate, not demonstrate” this time.

“While the Court is tasked with predicting the future, this is not ‘Minority Report.’ There has to be credible evidence of future danger to justify related release conditions,” .

District Judge John Bates agreed to let a New York couple, Carol Moore and Kevin Moore, attend the inauguration while awaiting a trial in April. Prosecutors argued that police officers could be “retraumatized” by the Moores’ presence, but Bates said it was unlikely that any officers at the inauguration would recognize them.

“First, past is not prologue here,” . “The nature of the inauguration is wholly different from the last event the Moores attended that involved the transition of power. Put simply, the inauguration will involve a crowd largely supporting the peaceful transition of power, not opposing it.”

The couple’s attorney said the Moores plan to join others in displaying signs reading “Day One” — an appeal for Trump to make good on a campaign promise to on his first day back in office. Trump repeatedly has referred to Jan. 6 defendants as “hostages” and “patriots.”

The list of Jan. 6 riot defendants allowed to be in Washington on Monday also includes a who reported himself to the FBI, a who must serve a four-month prison sentence and a accused of using a bullhorn to .

Prosecutors didn’t object to allowing Colorado bed-and-breakfast operator — who calls herself the “J6 Praying Grandma” — to attend the inauguration while she is on probation. Lavrenz said her daughter is serving as the deputy director of Monday’s swearing-in ceremony after working on Trump’s campaign last year.

Among those barred from attending the inauguration are , a Virginia man charged with assaulting police. Miller’s attorney, Stephen Brennwald, said Monday’s inauguration presents a “completely different scenario” than the 2021 riot. The lawyer also argued that his client¶¶Òőap conduct that day is irrelevant to his travel request.

“No longer will the participants and observers be in the District out of anger, ready to fight to try to wrest back the power they felt had been unjustly taken from them. Rather, they will be cheering the person they support, and law enforcement will not be in an antagonistic position to those attending the event,” .

District Judge Rudolph Contreras denied Miller’s request, pointing to his .

, a California man who had a knife and a hatchet in his possession when he helped other rioters overrun a police line outside the Capitol, said he was invited to attend the inauguration by former U.S. Rep. Chris Stewart, a six-term Utah Republican who .

District Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced Taylor to six months of home detention, said it wouldn’t be appropriate to allow somebody who tried to thwart the last presidential inauguration to attend “such a hallowed event.”

“To attend the Presidential Inauguration, which celebrates and honors the peaceful transfer of power, is an immense privilege,” .

Judges also rejected the travel requests made by a who participated in the first act of violence against Capitol police on Jan. 6, a charged with assaulting officers with a flagpole and a accused of attacking police with bear spray.

Boulder resident Jonathan “Duke” Valentour, 26, was arrested on Monday, the fourth anniversary of the attack on the Capitol. His father, Joseph Valentour, 66, of Centerville, Ohio, was arrested Friday in that state.

Both are charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers and obstructing police, both felonies. They are also charged with five misdemeanors, including disorderly conduct and carrying out physical violence at the Capitol.

The two men were initially identified from surveillance footage more than two years after the attack, according to an FBI affidavit. Investigators preliminarily linked the men to the surveillance video through publicly available photos in 2023 and conducted interviews over the following year, the affidavit states.

Joseph Valentour pushed against police officers and appeared to try to disarm an officer, forcing the officer to fall down a set of stairs, the FBI alleged in an affidavit. Joseph Valentour also attempted to tackle a police officer who moved to try to help the officer who’d fallen down the stairs, the FBI alleged.

His son, Jonathan Valentour, was seen on video pushing against police lines with other rioters multiple times, at least once using a police shield as cover during the effort, according to the affidavit. Jonathan Valentour retreated from the riot when he was pepper-sprayed, according to the document.

More than 1,500 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6, 2021, riot during Congress’ attempt to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory, according to the Department of Justice, and about 600 of those individuals have been charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

Trump, who will be inaugurated Jan. 20 to a second term, has called the bloody attack by his supporters “a day of love” and has promised to pardon rioters who have been convicted of crimes related to that day once he is back in office. It¶¶Òőap unclear, so far, whether he will try to pardon all of them or just those who were not violent.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

WASHINGTON — As Congress convenes during a winter storm President-elect election, hangs over the proceedings with an extraordinary fact: The candidate who tried to overturn the previous election won this time and is legitimately returning to power.

Lawmakers will gather noontime Monday under the tightest national security level possible. Layers of tall black fencing flank the U.S. Capitol complex in a stark reminder of , when a defeated Trump sent his mob to in what became on the seat of American democracy in 200 years.

in Congress are expected this time. Republicans from the highest levels of power who challenged when Trump lost to Democrat have this year after Vice President .

And Democrats frustrated by Trump’s nevertheless accept the choice of the American voters. Even barreling down on the region wasn’t expected to interfere with Jan. 6, the day set by law to certify the vote.

“Whether we’re in a blizzard or not, we are going to be in that chamber making sure this is done,” House Speaker , a Republican who to overturn the 2020 election, said Sunday on Fox News Channel.

The day’s return to a U.S. tradition that launches the peaceful transfer of presidential power comes with an asterisk as Trump prepares to take office in two weeks with a revived sense of authority. He denies that he lost four years ago, muses about staying beyond the Constitution’s two-term White House limit and some of the who have pleaded guilty or were convicted of crimes for the Capitol siege.

What¶¶Òőap unclear is if Jan. 6, 2021, was the anomaly, the year Americans violently attacked their own government, or if this year’s expected calm becomes the outlier. The U.S. is struggling to cope with its political and cultural differences at a time when . Trump calls Jan. 6, 2021, a “day of love.”

“We should not be lulled into complacency,” said Ian Bassin, executive director of the cross-ideological nonprofit Protect Democracy.

He and others have warned that it is historically unprecedented for U.S. voters to do what they did in November, reelecting Trump after he publicly refused to step aside last time. Returning to power an emboldened leader who has demonstrated his unwillingness to give it up “is an unprecedentedly dangerous move for a free country to voluntarily take,” Bassin said.

Biden, speaking Sunday at events at the White House, called Jan. 6, 2021, “one of the toughest days in American history.”

“We’ve got to get back to the basic, normal transfer of power,” the president said. What Trump did last time, Biden said, “was a genuine threat to democracy. I’m hopeful we’re beyond that now.”

Still, American democracy has proven to be resilient, and Congress, the branch of government closest to the people, will come together to affirm the choice of Americans.

With pomp and tradition, the day is expected to unfold as it has countless times before, with the arrival of ceremonial mahogany boxes filled with the electoral certificates from the states — boxes that staff were frantically grabbing and protecting as Trump’s mob stormed the building last time.

Senators will walk across the Capitol — which four years ago had filled with roaming rioters, some defecating and menacingly calling out for leaders, others engaging in hand-to-hand combat with police — to the House to begin certifying the vote.

Harris will preside over the counting, as is the requirement for the vice president, and certify her own defeat — much the way Democrat Al Gore did in 2001 and Republican Richard Nixon in 1961.

She will stand at the dais where then-Speaker was abruptly rushed to safety last time as the mob closed in and lawmakers fumbled to put on gas masks and flee, and shots rang out as police killed , a Trump supporter trying to climb through a broken glass door toward the chamber.

There are in place in the aftermath of what happened four years ago, when Republicans parroting Trump’s lie that the election was fraudulent challenged the results their own states had certified.

Under changes to the , it now requires one-fifth of lawmakers, instead of just one in each chamber, to raise any objections to election results. With security as tight as it is for the Super Bowl or the Olympics, law enforcement is on high alert for intruders. No tourists will be allowed.

But none of that is expected to be necessary.

Republicans, who met with Trump at the White House before Jan. 6, 2021, to craft a to challenge his election defeat, have accepted his win this time.

Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., who led the House floor challenge in 2021, said people at the time were so astonished by the election’s outcome and there were “lots of claims and allegations.”

This time, he said, “I think the win was so decisive
. It stifled most of that.”

Democrats, who have raised symbolic objections in the past, including during the disputed 2000 election that Gore lost to George W. Bush and ultimately decided by the Supreme Court, have no intention of objecting. House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries has said the Democratic Party is not “infested” with election denialism.

“There are no election deniers on our side of the aisle,” Jeffries said on the first day of the new Congress, to applause from Democrats in the chamber.

“You see, one should love America when you win and when you lose. That¶¶Òőap the patriotic thing to do,” Jeffries said.

Last time, far-right militias helped lead the mob to break into the Capitol in a war-zone-like scene. Officers have described being crushed and pepper-sprayed and beaten with Trump flag poles,

Leaders of the and have been convicted of and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Many others faced prison, probation, home confinement or other penalties.

Those Republicans who engineered the legal challenges to Trump’s defeat still stand by their actions, celebrated in Trump circles, despite the grave costs to their personal and professional livelihoods.

Several including disbarred lawyer and and indicted-but-pardoned met over the weekend at Trump’s private club Mar-a-Lago estate for a film screening about the 2020 election.

Trump was impeached by the House on the charge of inciting an insurrection that day but was acquitted by the Senate. At the time, GOP leader Mitch McConnell blamed Trump for the siege but said his culpability was for the courts to decide.

Federal prosecutors subsequently issued a of Trump for working to overturn the election, including for conspiracy to defraud the United States, but special counsel Jack Smith was forced to pare back the case once the Supreme Court ruled that a president has for actions taken in office.

Smith last month withdrew the case after Trump won reelection, adhering to Justice Department guidelines that sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted.

Biden, in one of his outgoing acts, awarded the to Rep. Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., and former Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who had been the chair and vice chair of the congressional committee that conducted an investigation into Jan. 6, 2021.

Trump has said those who worked on the Jan. 6 committee should be .

___

Associated Press writers Fatima Hussein and Ashraf Khalil contributed to this report.

Patrick Montgomery, 51, was found guilty of obstructing an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting or impeding officers earlier this year, and court records.

After a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that raised the bar of evidence for charging Capitol rioters with obstruction, the obstruction charge was dropped and Montgomery was sentenced Thursday to 37 months of imprisonment and 36 months of supervised release for the remaining charges.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia wrote in a news release that Montgomery and co-defendants Brady Knowlton and Gary Wilson attended the “Save America” rally on the morning of Jan. 6, where then-President Donald Trump and his allies promoted the unfounded claim that widespread voter fraud caused Trump’s loss in the 2020 presidential election.

Montgomery, Knowlton and Wilson then walked to the west side of the Capitol building, where they crossed a restricted perimeter, and Montgomery tried to wrestle a baton out of the hands of a law enforcement officer.

“The officer held onto the baton and fell to the ground with Montgomery,” prosecutors said in the release. “The two then attempted to wrestle control of the baton from each other while Knowlton and Wilson watched nearby. During the scuffle, Montgomery kicked the police officer in the chest.”

Montgomery and others entered the building through an emergency exit, proceeding through the Capitol rotunda and into the Senate gallery, where the three confronted a U.S. Capitol police officer.

According to prosecutors, Montgomery yelled at the officer, “You’ve got to stop doing your job sometime and start being American. You’ve got to quit doing your job and be an American.”

The group left the building soon after, and Montgomery was arrested in Colorado on Jan. 17, 2021. Knowlton is awaiting sentencing for his role in the riot, and Wilson was sentenced to one month’s imprisonment and a year of supervised release, prosecutors said.

In 2021, Montgomery, a Littleton hunting guide, violated the conditions of his release by hunting and killing a mountain lion and was placed on house arrest. He had been ordered not to possess any guns while the federal charges against him were pending, according to motions filed by prosecutors.

Jay Johnston, 56, of Los Angeles, joined other rioters in a “heave ho” push against police officers guarding a tunnel entrance to the Capitol during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot. Johnston also cracked jokes and interacted with other rioters as he used a cellphone to record the violence around him, prosecutors said.

Johnston expressed regret that he “made it more difficult for the police to do their job” on Jan. 6. He said he never would have guessed that a riot would erupt that day.

“That was because of my own ignorance, I believe,” he told U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols. “If I had been more political, I could have seen that coming, perhaps.”

The judge, who sentenced Johnston to one year and one day of imprisonment, allowed him to remain free after the hearing and report to prison at a date to be determined. Nichols said he recognizes that Johnston will miss out on caring for his 13-year-old autistic daughter while he is behind bars.

“But his conduct on January 6th was quite problematic. Reprehensible, really,” the judge said.

Johnston to interfering with police officers during a civil disorder, a felony punishable by a maximum prison sentence of five years.

Prosecutors recommended an 18-month prison sentence for Johnston. Their sentencing memo includes a photograph of a smiling Johnston dressed as , the spear-carrying Capitol rioter known as the “QAnon Shaman,” at a Halloween party roughly two years after the siege.

“He thinks his participation in one of the most serious crimes against our democracy is a joke,” .

Johnston played pizzeria owner Jimmy Pesto Sr. in “Bob’s Burgers,” a police officer in “Arrested Development” and a street-brawling newsman in the movie “Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy.” Johnston also appeared on “Mr. Show with Bob and David,” an HBO sketch comedy series that starred Bob Odenkirk and David Cross.

Johnston, a Chicago native, moved to Los Angeles in 1993 to pursue an . After the riot, Johnston was fired by the creator of “Bob’s Burgers,” lost a role in a movie based on the show and has “essentially been blacklisted” in Hollywood, said defense attorney Stanley Woodward.

“Instead, Mr. Johnston has worked as a handyman for the last two years — an obvious far cry from his actual expertise and livelihood in film and television,” .

Woodward accused the government of exaggerating Johnston’s riot participation “because he is an acclaimed Hollywood actor.”

Johnston attended then-President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House on Jan. 6 before he marched to the Capitol. He used a metal bike rack to scale a stone wall to reach the Capitol’s West Plaza before making his way to the mouth of a tunnel entrance that police were guarding on the Lower West Terrace.

“When he was under the archway, he turned and waved to other rioters, beckoning them to join him in fighting the police,” prosecutors wrote.

Entering the tunnel, Johnston helped other rioters flush chemical irritants out of their eyes. Another rioter gave him a stolen police shield, which he handed up closer to the police line. Johnston then joined other rioters in a “heave ho” push against police in the tunnel, a collective effort that crushed an officer against a door frame, prosecutors said.

Johnston recorded himself cracking a joke as rioters pushed an orange ladder toward police in the tunnel, saying, “We’re going to get those light bulbs fixed!”

A day after the riot, in a text message to an acquaintance, Johnston acknowledged being at the Capitol on Jan. 6.

“The news has presented it as an attack. It actually wasn’t. Thought it kind of turned into that. It was a mess,” Johnston wrote.

FBI agents seized Johnston’s cellphone when they searched his California home in June 2021.

More than 1,500 people have been charged with Capitol riot-related federal crimes. Over 1,000 rioters have been convicted and sentenced. Roughly 650 of them received prison time ranging from a few days to .

Tyler Earl Ethridge, 35, was sentenced Wednesday before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras. He was convicted of two felonies — obstructing an official proceeding and civil disorder — on Sept. 8.

His misdemeanors include “entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building,” according to from the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

Ethridge also owes $2,000 in restitution, and he must serve 24 months of supervised release.

Ethridge, who was arrested by the Federal Bureau of Investigation on July 8, 2022, counts as one of more than 1,500 people charged after the Capitol riot.

On Jan. 6, 2021, Ethridge participated in former President Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally in Washington, D.C., before going to the U.S. Capitol, the news release reports. It details that he was responsible for helping to dismantle the fencing of a closed area and encouraging others to clash with police from his elevated position on a scaffolding. He later resisted police himself.

Ethridge spent about a half hour in the Capitol building, according to the news release.

An under Ethridge’s name has documented his participation in the insurrection and his related court proceedings.

“I hope this doesn’t get me thrown in jail,” Ethridge said in . “I’m officially a pastor. This is what pastors need to do.”

Rebecca Lavrenz, a 71-year-old woman from Falcon who goes by “” on social media, was sentenced Monday to 12 months of probation and six months of home detention with an internet restriction, according to court records.

Lavrenz was also charged more than $103,000 in fines, restitution and special assessments, U.S. Department of Justice officials said in an emailed statement to the Denver Post.

The 71-year-old woman was convicted in April on four misdemeanor charges: entering and remaining in a restricted building, disorderly conduct inside a restricted building with the intent to disrupt government proceedings, disorderly conduct on Capitol property and picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol.

Following Jan. 6, 2021, multiple tipsters alerted federal investigators that Lavrenz had been among the rioters who unlawfully entered the Capitol, according to court records.

Through phone records, surveillance camera footage and a consensual interview with Lavrenz, FBI agents were able to track her to the Capitol riot after attending a nearby “Stop the Steal” rally, according to court records.

Lavrenz was arrested on Dec. 19, 2022, and her trial began on March 25 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., in front of a 12-person jury.