A Searcy man charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riots apparently has reached a plea agreement with federal prosecutors.
Daniel Hatcher is scheduled for a plea-agreement hearing Friday afternoon, June 28, in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., according to a court filing Thursday. The hearing before U.S. District Judge Ana C. Reyes will be via teleconference. Hatcher remains free pending sentencing and has been allowed to travel out of the country.
Hatcher’s co-defendants, Texans Nathan “Nate” Mackie and Brandon Mackie, also are scheduled for the plea-agreement hearing.
Authorities have said the three men, who were friends, flew to Washington on Jan. 5, 2021, and the next day attended a Donald Trump rally that preceded the riots. Hatcher told an investigator that he and the Mackies walked to the Capitol after the rally. “Footage that I reviewed indicates … that Hatcher attempted to climb a wall leading to the Northwest Terrace of the building,” an investigator wrote in a court filing in February.
“Hatcher told the FBI that he climbed to the top of the wall, but then climbed back down the wall and decided to use the stairs” — an account confirmed by video footage the investigator reviewed. Other video footage shows that Hatcher and the Mackies entered the building through a broken window and remained in the area about two minutes before leaving through a door, the investigator wrote.
Hatcher and the Mackie brothers are charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building or grounds, and parading and demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.