The man who attacked an Associated Press photojournalist and threw a flagpole at police officers guarding the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021, was sentenced today to five years in prison.
The indictment alleges that Rodney Milstrade, 56, of Finksburg, Maryland, “prepared for battle” on Jan. 6 by injecting steroids and arming himself with a four-foot wooden pole disguised as a flagpole.
The prosecutor showed U.S. District Judge James Bosberg videos of Milstrade’s attacks outside the Capitol.
In the end, Milstrade told the judge it was painful to watch his violent actions and hear his combative language that day.
“I know what I did that day was very wrong,” he admitted, but heard the judge say he believed he would repent, particularly for attacking police officers and a photojournalist.
The prosecution requested a six-year and six-month prison sentence for Milstrade, a mechanic who works at oil and gas facilities.
In a letter to the judge before sentencing, Milstrade said he understood the wrongfulness of his actions on January 6, and had learned from his mistakes.
Milstrade was arrested in May 2022 in Colorado, where he worked, and pleaded guilty to charges of assault and possession of an unregistered firearm.
Milstrade was angry at the result of the 2020 presidential election, which gave Democrat Joe Biden victory over Republican Donald Trump, and used social media to make threats against the authorities.
In late December 2020, he emailed a section of the far-right Proud Boys group in Maryland asking how to join the movement.
On the morning of January 6, 2021, Milstrade took a train to Washington and then attended a rally for then-President Donald Trump near the White House, following the crowd that headed to the Capitol to try to stop the counting of college votes and thus reverse the election results. Trump’s defeat.
Milstrade joined other protesters in attacking an Associated Press photographer, pushing and threatening him, before violently attacking him.
Other demonstrators were accused of attacking the same photographer, and one of them – Alan Burley, 55, from Pennsylvania – was sentenced last October to two years and 10 months in prison.
More than 1,100 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the invasion of the Capitol, with more than 650 people convicted, and about two-thirds of them sentenced to prison terms ranging from three days to 22 years.
