Jan. 6 Insurrection: Where The Cases With Links To Wisconsin Are Now

WISCONSIN — Nine people with ties to Wisconsin are among the more than 900 across America who have been charged with crimes in the wake of the violent Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.

Friday marked the two-year anniversary of the insurrection led by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. In the two years since the deadly attack, the House select committee investigating has recommended criminal charges against Trump and some of his allies. Closer to home, five people with ties to Wisconsin have been sentenced in connection with the violence. Four others have been arrested and are in the midst of the federal court system.

Among the ongoing cases with links to Wisconsin is that of James Beek, who was arrested in Milwaukee on Nov. 24 of 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. Beeks, an actor known for his role in the musical "Jesus Christ Superstar," decided to represent himself; Although he also has counsel from Madison-based Federal Defender Services of Wisconsin, according to online court documents. At points, Beeks attempted to dismiss the case with motions at times arguing over subject-matter jurisdiction.

Another ongoing case is Michael Fitzgerald's, who was arrested in Madison in April of 2021, according to the U.S. DOJ. A month later he pleaded not guilty to all charges, which included obstruction of law enforcement during civil disorder plus violent entry and disorderly conduct on capitol grounds, according to online court records. By February of 2022, Fitzgerald has indicated possible plans to accept a plea deal, "but is currently undergoing extensive treatment for a serious medical condition," according to a joint status report filed in the case at the time. The next status conference on Fitzgerald's case was scheduled for March of 2023, online records said.

The two other ongoing cases are for Conlin Weyer, who was arrested in April of 2022, and Riley Kasper, who was arrested in March of 2022.

In June of 2022, Weyer pleaded not guilty to charges of entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, and three different disorderly and disruptive conduct charges, online records showed. Kasper, who was accused of using pepper spray on law enforcement, is also still in the midst of the justice system with the next conference set for late January, online court records said.

Here are the five people with ties to Wisconsin who have been sentenced so far:

• Kevin Loftus, arrested in January 2021 in Eau Claire, was sentenced in March of 2022 to three years of probation including 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution.
• Abram Markofski, who was arrested in La Crosse, was sentenced to 24 months probation in December of 2021 and ordered to pay $1500 in fines and restitution.
• David Charles Mish Jr., who was arrested in January 2021 in West Allis, was sentenced to 30 days of incarceration and $500 in restitution in November of 2021.
• Joshua Munn, arrested in July of 2021 in Melrose, was sentenced to 36 months of probation, 60 hours of community service and $500 in restitution in October 2022.
• Brandon Nelson, who was arrested in Middleton on May 2021, was sentenced to 24 months of probation, 50 hours of community service and $2,500 in fines in December 2021.

The violent siege on the Capitol two years ago was an attempt to stop the certification of electoral votes declaring Joe Biden the winner of the 2020 presidential election. It resulted in the deaths of five people during or soon after the attack, including two Capitol police officers and one rioter. About 140 police officers from the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department were assaulted in the attack, according to the Justice Department.

It was the first in U.S. history that the transfer of power from one administration to another was not peaceful. In a speech before rioters attacked the Capitol, Trump repeated the same claims he had been making in the two months since the election that it had been stolen, then urged his supporters to walk from the rally site on the National Mall to the Capitol.

Biden is expected to mark the two-year anniversary of the insurrection with remarks Friday in the East Room of the White House, according to a schedule released Monday by his office. The White House did not provide details, according to reports from The Hill and others.

In a blistering criticism of the insurrection last year, Biden did not mention Trump by name, but squarely blamed the “defeated president” for the attack he said raised global concerns about the future of American democracy.

During its sweeping nearly 18-month investigation, the Jan. 6 committee, made up of seven Democrats and two Republicans, interviewed more than 1,000 witnesses, held 10 hearings and obtained more than a million pages of documents before releasing its 814-page report last month.

The panel came to the unanimous conclusion that Trump coordinated a “conspiracy” on multiple levels, pressuring states, federal officials and lawmakers to try to overturn his defeat, and inspired a violent mob of his supporters to attack the Capitol and interrupt the certification of Biden’s win.

Chairman Bernie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat, called the final report a “roadmap to justice” for Trump, whose actions leading up to the insurrection were the nearly singular focus of the committee.

“Donald Trump lit that fire,” Thompson wrote in the committee’s final report. “But in the weeks beforehand, the kindling he ultimately ignited was amassed in plain sight.”

The committee’s criminal referral asks the Justice Department to consider charges against Trump related to inciting an insurrection, conspiracy to defraud the United States, conspiracy to make a false statement and obstruction of an official proceeding. The referral is largely symbolic, and the Justice Department is under no obligation to comply with recommendations in the unprecedented referral.

Witnesses, who ranged from many of Trump’s closest aides to law enforcement officers to some of the rioters themselves, detailed Trump’s “premeditated” actions ahead of the attack and told the committee how his wide-ranging efforts to overturn his defeat directly influenced those who brutally pushed past the police and smashed through the windows and doors of the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

In the months, weeks and days leading up to Jan. 6, “stop the steal” rallies built on the former president’s unsubstantiated accusations were held in Trump strongholds and swing states. The first was four days after the 2020 presidential election, on Nov. 7, 2020, at the Pennsylvania State Capitol in Harrisburg, but other notable rallies were held in Michigan, Wisconsin, Georgia and North Carolina.

From Jan. 5-7, 2021, Trump supporters staged 39 “stop the steal” protests in their state capitals, according to a report from the Bridging Divides Initiative, a project of Princeton University

The attack promoted the most expansive federal law enforcement investigation in U.S. history. The FBI has offered a reward of up to $500,000 for information leading to the conviction of those responsible for placing pipe bombs in Washington on Jan. 5, 2021. The agency is still seeking the public’s help to identify people pictured in 1,433 photos taken the day of the insurrection.

Less than half (335) of the cases have been adjudicated and the defendants have received their sentences, including 185 who have been sentenced to incarceration.

Among the most closely watched trials was that of Oath Keepers leaders Stewart Rhodes and Kelly Meggs, who were found guilty of seditious conspiracy — the most serious of the charges so far — in late November.

Three of their co-defendants were acquitted of the charge. Four other individuals have pleaded guilty to seditious conspiracy charges, the most serious of those filed so far in the investigation.

Seditious conspiracy charges reflect the Justice Department’s belief that the Capitol breach was a grave threat to the operation of the U.S. government.

Under the rarely-used federal seditious conspiracy law, enacted after the American Civil War, charges are filed when two or more people plot to “overthrow, put down, or to destroy by force the United States or to levy war against them, or to oppose by force the authority thereof, or by force to prevent, hinder or delay the execution of any law of the United States. …”

As the federal criminal cases continue, the FBI is continuing to ask the public’s help in finding others who participated in the attack, which cell phone technology made one of the most documented crimes in U.S. history. Many of the Justice Department’s cases have been built on video footage of the attack, social media posts, phone location data and tips from the public, and federal prosecutors say hundreds more cases could be filed.

Trials will continue this year and perhaps into 2024.