A Tennessee man who brought zip-tie handcuffs and weapons to the U.S. Capitol riot will be sentenced along with his mother for their roles in the Jan. 6 insurrection.
Eric Gavelek Munchel and his mother Lisa Eisenhart, of Georgia, were arrested days after the riot and convicted in April in a bench trial of multiple felony counts, including obstruction of an official proceeding and conspiracy. A federal judge will sentence them Friday afternoon, reported WUSA-TV.
“He was swept up in the political mania that infected the nation in 2020 and felt so strongly about his duty as a citizen to participate in the electoral process that he broke from his normal routine and traveled to Washington, D.C., to participate in a protest,” wrote Munchel’s attorney Joseph Allen.
“His behavior and lack of judgment from this point can be seen to be a series of compounding external forces, not the innate character of Mr. Munchel.”
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The Department of Justice is seeking nearly five years in prison for Munchel, whose attorneys have argued for no more than a year, and federal prosecutors are seeking nearly four years for Eisenhart, whose attorneys argued in their sentencing memo that she would likely lose her 30-year career as a nurse.
“The logical inference is that Munchel and Eisenhart wanted to use the zip-tie handcuffs to capture their enemies: the members of Congress voting to certify the election,” prosecutors wrote. “Supporting that inference, Munchel explicitly stated that his intent in storming and occupying the Capitol was as a show of force to threaten violence against those same members of Congress and thus intimidate them into doing what he wanted them to do.”
Munchel also brought a stun gun into the Capitol and stashed a knife outside, and both gave interviews the day after the riot saying they expected violence.
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“We wanted to show that we’re willing to rise up, band together and fight if necessary," Munchel told a British reporter. "Same as our forefathers, who established this country in 1776.”
Eisenhart explicitly said she was prepared for violence at the Capitol.
“I’d rather die as a 57-year-old woman than live under oppression,” she said. “I’d rather die and would rather fight.”
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