Gietzen Faces 6 Years Behind Bars for Involvement in January 6 Insurrection, What Is Next!

DEBARYLIFE – This week, Sanford resident David Gietzen was given a six-year prison sentence for his involvement in the riot that took place on January 6, 2021, at the U.S. Capitol Complex in Washington, D.C. After serving his whole term in prison, Gietzen, 31, will be subject to an extra three years of supervised release.

Judge Carl J. Nichols of the U.S. District Court delivered the sentence following a hearing on Tuesday afternoon at the E. Barrett Prettyman Federal Courthouse in Washington. This is the same courtroom in which Gietzen was found guilty last summer of seven felonies and one misdemeanor for attacking law enforcement and engaging in other actions that attempted to obstruct a congressional session that was being held to tally and certify the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Judge Nichols offered Gietzen the opportunity to apologize or show regret for his actions, but he declined, stating, “I have to make it explicitly known that I believe I did the right thing.” Before Gietzen’s sentence was imposed, Nichols stated that the Sanford man had made it apparent both throughout the sentencing hearing and his trial in August that, despite evidence to the contrary, he continues to think that Donald Trump was the victim of election tampering.

As Nichols handed Gietzen a prison sentence that will keep him behind bars until the next president of the United States, whoever that may be, he remarked, “Mr. Gietzen essentially was unapologetic today about his conduct.”

Judge Nichols’ October 19 order for him to self-surrender in his Washington, D.C. courtroom the following day was disregarded, and as a result, he received a six-year sentence along with a “two-level enhancement” for obstruction of justice. Rather, Gietzen consciously disobeyed the order and went into hiding. It seems that he spent the majority, if not all, of the ensuing 54 days in his mother’s house before a US Marshal apprehended him on December 12.

Records submitted on April 4 by Gietzen’s court-appointed public defender, Louis C. Allen III, and U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves depict a picture of a young man who overcame adversity early in life and achieved success, but whose life descended into chaos after he became radicalized in his developing political views.

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When David was seven years old, his parents divorced and his father enlisted in the Army. Before the 1,300-square-foot house was repossessed in 2003, his mother and his nine siblings resided in it. After that, they moved to a mobile home that was located a little outside of Fayetteville. According to the court documents, the family had financial difficulties for several years after that.

Gietzen dropped out of high school, but over several years, his mother enrolled in Central Carolina Community College with David, herself, and several of his siblings. In 2014, he enrolled at N.C. State after receiving his GED and associate’s degree in applied science.

He completed two bachelor’s degrees in electrical and computer engineering after six semesters. After that, he was employed by Raleigh-based Extron, a manufacturer of electronics with a focus on audiovisual settings. He was earning $80,000 a year when he left a few years later, and he regularly handed up a percentage of that money to family members to assist them pay bills and other costs.

It appeared as though David Gietzen was living the dream. However, when he started hearing conspiracy theories suggesting that Trump had been cheated out of the 2020 presidential election, his fantasy turned into a nightmare. Gietzen was convinced to believe fake allegations of voter fraud he started seeing on social media, even though he had not cast a ballot in either the 2016 or 2020 elections.

He left his lucrative career to attend many “Stop the Steal” protests across the nation in the fall and winter of 2020, as well as those before the one in Washington on January 6, because he was so touched by what he was seeing, hearing, and reading. According to documents his public defender filed, David started taking in “a flood of election information…three or four hours a day.”

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Gietzen’s trial brought three of the law enforcement officers who had guarded the Capitol that day to testify. Gietzen pushed a bike rack against him so forcefully that one of the officers, U.S. Capitol Police Sergeant Justin Cohen, testified that the bruises on his arms and shins lasted for days. Cohen was shoved to the ground, and as he looked up, he saw Gietzen snatching an officer’s face mask. Standing a few feet away, Gietzen repeatedly yelled, “You’re all a f—–g disgrace!” to Metropolitan Police Department Officer Chad Curtice, who was also attempting to maintain the line.

Federal prosecutors attempted to draw Nichols’ attention to the things that Gietzen did both during the uprising and after it was done when he boasted to his friends and family. “I’ve never been prouder to be an American than today’s protest,” a friend was texting someone. In another, on January 20, the day of President Biden’s inauguration, he described January 6 as “a beautiful day” and spoke excitedly about what he believed would be the following move: the commencement of an armed civil war:

Sadly, it appears that civil war is now almost certain. The next event is scheduled for January 20, and rumor has it that attendees will be bringing firearms. [T]rump is not required for this rally to take place. We don’t work for him, and it would be treasonous of him to admit electoral fraud. When it comes to the world’s future, no surrender is allowed.

January 6th Is Becoming a Day For Introspection

Gietzen is the only known survivor of the January 6th rebellion who went back to Washington two weeks later to see Joe Biden take office as president. On January 19, while he and his brother were traveling back, he received a call from an FBI agent. However, Gietzen told the agent a falsehood when he claimed that the heavy crowds on January 6 prevented him from reaching the Capitol building.

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Gietzen was captured in several images released to the public at the time of his arrest in May 2022 on the Capitol Complex’s West Terrace and in the access tunnel directly outside the West Entrance, where some of the most violent fighting of the day occurred. On January 19, he also informed the agent that he and his brother were simply going to see the inauguration. However, the FBI deduced from later-found text messages on his phone that “they planned to force their way into the Capitol building to force Congress to hold another election.”

Gietzen also texted someone else, saying, “Btw, they’re attempting to attribute the news of Storming Congress to Antifa. I was in the hallway, B——T, assisting in the retreat of the guard line. What happened today was 100 (percent) what occurs when you piss off regular people, and the next demonstration will be even more extreme.

Prosecutors reminded Nichols that Gietzen had committed an act of obstruction of justice when he willfully disregarded his October 19 court order to turn himself in before a sentence was handed down. That behavior, coupled with the fact that Gietzen did not express any regret or remorse for his crimes and that he was accused of multiple assaults on police officers, led Graves to conclude that Gietzen “operates in a pattern of flouting rules and laws and doing what he wants, regardless of the consequences.”

Attorney Allen had requested a maximum four-year prison sentence for his client. On behalf of the government, Graves had suggested ten years. After settling on a sentence of six years, Nichols is about the same as other people who committed comparable offenses during the wild binge that lasted for slightly more than five hours on January 6.

Gietzen will serve out his jail sentence in a facility run by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Bureau of Prisons because he was found guilty of federal offenses. The one nearest to Sanford is in Butner, North Carolina, but where Gietzen ends his time will be decided by the BOP. As of the time of publication, no assignment has been made.

1,385 people have been charged in connection with the events that occurred in the Capitol complex on January 6, 2021, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, which occurred more than three years ago. Gietzen was among the roughly 500 individuals who were accused of abusing, obstructing, or resisting law authorities.