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Slur-spewing Capitol rioter faces up to 28 years in prison after pleading guilty to assaulting cops
May 3, 2022 3:31PM ET
Pro-Trump protesters and police clash on top of the Capitol building. (Shutterstock.com)
A Pennsylvania man who wielded a wooden club he labeled the “Commie knocker” on January 6 has pleaded guilty to two felony charges in connection with the Capitol riot.
Marshall Neefe, 25, of Newville, Pennsylvania, pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding and assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers. Neefe faces a statutory maximum of 20 years in prison on the conspiracy charge and an additional eight years in prison on the assault charge. He will be sentenced August 17.
Neefe was accused by the FBI of carrying the wooden club onto the Capitol grounds during the riot. He “participated in hoisting and pushing a large metal sign frame – at least eight feet tall and 10 feet wide -- into a defensive line of officers attempting to prevent the crowd from further advancing on the west front plaza of the Capitol,” according to a Department of Justice (DOJ) news release.
The DOJ stated that on November 4, 2020 -- one day after the election -- Neefe wrote to co-defendant Charles Bradford Smith, “I’m getting ready to storm D.C.” Smith, who has pleaded not guilty, participated in the riot with Neefe, the FBI alleges.
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“In one communication, Neefe wrote, “We goin? ...Cause hot damn son I really wanna crack some commie skulls.” The two discussed bringing “batons” with them, and Neefe sent a photograph of a wooden club he had made to Smith and others, with a caption that called it “The Commie Knocker.”
As reported at Raw Story, Neefe’s case was singled out by U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth in criticizing Republican lawmakers who claimed non-violent January 6 defendants were being held unfairly.
“In petitioning the court to keep him behind bars, prosecutors revealed a series of messages that Neefe had sent on Facebook using the “N-word” and discussing lynching people. Neefe also had made violent threats towards lawmakers, saying that Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell deserved “a bullet in the head.” He also talked openly of igniting a civil war and indicated that he was willing to return to Washington, D.C. with firearms to renew the attack on the Capitol.
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“After laying out his rationale for detaining Neefe, Lamberth added this highly unusual addendum:
“Some members of the public and even a few members of Congress retain the impression that peaceful political protestors are being held in jail pending trial,” wrote Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan. “Neefe’s detention disproves that delusion. Neefe is detained not because of his beliefs, but because of his alleged violent actions and his expressed intent to engage in violent activity again.”
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