A 34-year-old man from Idaho has become the latest Capitol rioter to plead guilty after admitting that he thought he had sat in Nancy Pelosi’s chair on 6 January.
Josiah B Colt told a court on Wednesday that an image of him sitting in the chair of the presiding officer in the Senate – and what he mistakenly believed to be Ms Pelosi’s chair – “looks worse than it is” when “taken out of context”, according to The Washington Post.
Ms Pelosi’s chair, as speaker of the House, is in the House chamber.
US District Judge Thomas F Hogan, who read from Colt’s statement of facts, told him: “You not only got into the Senate gallery, but you sat in the presiding officer’s chair, which you mistakenly thought was Speaker [Nancy] Pelosi’s chair, is that an accurate summary?”
Colt told the judge that was correct, and that a photo of him in the presiding officer’s chair with his fist in the air was “kind of a joke”. In another image, he was seen hanging off a balcony inside of the Senate.
After walking out of the Capitol on 6 January, Colt allegedly told friends on Facebook: “I just got in the Capitol building, I was the first one that hopped down into the chamber, and I was the first one to sit in Nancy Pelosi’s chair”.
“That b****, she’s a traitor,” he added in the video.
As reported by Insider in January, Colt told local news outlets before his arrest that he was sorry and got "caught up in the moment." An FBI affidavit said Colt was "mistaken” about sitting in Ms Pelosi’s chair.
On Wednesday, Judge Hogan and prosecutors agreed to drop three misdemeanour charges against Colt in exchange for his full cooperation with investigations into the riot. He is expected to return to court in October.
As The Post reported, he also admitted to organising travel to Washington DC with two other men with firearms and weapons. They are awaiting trial.
