Some supporters of Donald Trump who are facing charges for storming the Capitol on Jan. 6 are trying to profit from their participation in the deadly riot, according to the Associated Press.
Jeremy Grace, 38, from Washington State is selling clothes and other merchandise with images of the Capitol building and slogans such as “Our House” and “Back the Blue.” Grace filmed himself on Jan. 6 chanting “Our House, Our House” and “freedom” while inside the Capitol.
Prosecutors said Grace’s “audacity” to sell “Back the Blue” paraphernalia is “especially disturbing” because he watched other rioters confront police officers on Jan. 6, according to AP.
He pleaded guilty to one count of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds in June and was sentenced to 21 days in prison and supervised released.
Another rioter, Antoinne DeShaun Brodnax, from Virginia posed on a SWAT truck during the riot and used the photograph as the cover for his rap album with riot-themed songs. Brodnax pleaded guilty to all four charges against him against him without a plea deal in place. He was already serving probation for a felony charge when he stormed the Capitol on January 6. He has prior felony convictions for possession of and manufacturing a controlled substance, robbery and possession of a firearm by a felon.
Ronald Sandlin, a rioter from Nevada currently in prison on charges related to the Capitol riot told his mother to contact publishers about a book he is writing about the Capitol riot, which he hopes to one day turn into a movie, according to the AP.
“I plan on having Leonardo DiCaprio play me,” he wrote in a 2021 text.
Sandlin also claimed online that he was “working out a Netflix deal” to sell riot video footage.
Another rioter, Adam Johnson, whose photos with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium during the riot went viral, reached a plea agreement with prosecutors that allows the government to take the profits from any book he published in the next five years. Johnson is reportedly planning on publishing a memoir.
Federal authorities seized more than $62,000 from the bank account of rioter John Earle Sullivan, who earned nearly $100k from selling his Jan. 6 video footage to at least six companies, the AP reported.
Richard Barnett, the man who was photographed with his feet on Pelosi’s desk is charging donors $100 for a photo of him with his feet on a desk while he’s under house arrest.
Nearly 900 people have been charged in connection with the Jan. 6 insurrection and more than 300 have pleaded guilty, according to Insider.
