A Capitol Police officer who tried to help a Jan. 6 rioter avoid detection from law enforcement was sentenced Thursday to 120 days of home incarceration for obstructing justice.
Michael Riley, a decorated 25-year veteran of the Capitol Police who was one of the first officers to respond to pipe bombs found at the RNC and DNC on Jan. 6, delivered a tearful apology in the courtroom, describing “awful judgment” in the days following the attack that led him to attempt to aid a member of the mob.
U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson said she appreciated Riley’s remorse but tore into the retired officer for what she said was a pattern of dishonesty about the brazenness of his conduct. She said he lied to colleagues about his contact with the Jan. 6 rioter — a fisherman from Virginia named Jacob Hiles who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors in 2021 — and misrepresented his actions both on the witness stand and even in the chronology he laid out during his sentencing hearing.
Still, Jackson said Riley’s lengthy career — unblemished before Jan. 6 — his lack of criminal history and the consequences he already suffered, from his forced retirement to the loss of his department-issued dog, justified the sentence of home confinement. Prosecutors had initially sought a sentence of 27 months in prison for Riley’s conduct, saying his status as a police officer exacerbated the seriousness of his actions.
It’s the close of a complicated and wrenching chapter in the arc of Jan. 6 prosecutions. Riley was convicted last year of obstruction of justice for deleting his Facebook messages. The jury deadlocked on a second obstruction charge related to his contact with Hiles.
Riley’s arrest in October 2021 followed intense, but so far unsupported, concerns among members of Congress that some Capitol Police officers may have sympathized with and even assisted the Jan. 6 mob at the Capitol.
Riley is the only officer who has faced charges stemming from his actions following the Jan. 6 attack. There’s no evidence he assisted the mob on Jan. 6 — and in fact the evidence suggests he acted “honorably” in responding to the riot, Jackson emphasized.
Jackson said it was not entirely clear why Riley chose to aid Hiles — and not any other rioter — but said he seemed enamored of Hiles, whom he didn’t know personally before Jan. 6 but who shared a passion for fishing. Riley and Hiles were active in the same social media groups for fishing enthusiasts, and Riley noticed Jan. 7 that Hiles had posted about being inside the Capitol.
He soon struck up a Facebook conversation with Hiles and urged him to delete parts of his posts that mentioned he went inside the building. Investigators, Riley noted, would be searching for and arresting anyone who went inside. Riley maintained contact with Hiles for nearly two weeks, even after he was arrested Jan. 19, 2021. After Hiles told Riley that the FBI seemed interested in their contact, Riley deleted his own communications with Hiles and sent Hiles a concocted excuse to cut off contact.
“Talk about a complete lie,” Jackson said.
The case drew sharply polarized reactions from Riley’s family, friends and colleagues. He retired from the Capitol Police within months of the charges and indicated in court Thursday that many of his former colleagues had cut off contact with him. Aquilino Gonell, a Capitol Police officer who was assaulted by members of the mob Jan. 6 and has become an outspoken advocate for prosecuting members of the mob, called him a “turncoat.”
But Jackson also acknowledged that Riley had a history of heroism on the Capitol Police force, on multiple occasions saving the lives of fellow officers or providing aid amid crisis. He saved the life of a fellow officer who was knocked unconscious during a 2011 blizzard and had stopped breezing. He was also one of the first to respond to a vehicle attack against officers in April 2021 — three months after the Jan. 6 attack — and provided aid to a downed officer, Billy Evans, who later died of his injuries.
Complicating the matter further, Riley is suffering from an undisclosed autoimmune illness that requires complicated treatments, details of which were disclosed to Jackson under seal. She acknowledged the illness in her sentencing and emphasized that he was permitted to leave his home for medical reasons.
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