A judge in Washington, D.C., has agreed to delay the bench trial of a Bentonville man charged in the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot.
On Monday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols ruled that Nathan Earl Hughes‘ trial would begin July 29 or Aug. 12 and said he would rule further on that matter later. The trial originally was scheduled for July 15.
Hughes, 34, wasn’t arrested until August and remains free on his own recognizance.
Hughes is charged with two felonies — assaulting a law enforcement officer and obstructing, impeding or interfering with a law enforcement officer during commission of a civil disorder. He is also charged with three misdemeanor offenses: entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and impeding passage through the Capitol grounds or buildings.
The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reported today that three of Hughes’ four co-defendants were sentenced to prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to interfering with police officers during a civil disorder. Their prison sentences ranged from six to 18 months in prison, the newspaper reported.
The fourth co-defendant, actor Jay Johnston, is scheduled to be sentenced Oct. 7 after pleading guilty to civil disorder on Monday, according to federal court records.
According to an FBI special agent’s statement of facts filed earlier in the Hughes case’s proceedings, Hughes grabbed at officers’ riot shields and tried to take them away inside a Capitol tunnel during the riot. At one point, the statement said, Hughes used his elbow to strike in the direction of an officer holding a shield. After Hughes was eventually pushed out of the tunnel, the special agent reported, Hughes was heard shouting to others in the mob, “Pull them out!” Hughes had earlier seen officers being pulled from the tunnel into the crowd, the statement said.
The Jan. 6 riots followed a Donald Trump speech and rally near the Capitol and were in protest of Joe Biden’s victory over Trump in the November 2020 presidential election. Trump is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee this year as Biden seeks a second term.