Eric Munchel, the Nashville man filmed in the U.S. Capitol during the Jan. 6 riots wearing SWAT-style tactical gear and carrying the kind of zip ties designed to restrain human beings, is off to prison for 5 years. He's pictured here with his mom, Lisa Marie Eisenhart, who got her own 2 1/2-year sentence for joining him there.
Prosecutors added that "it is terrifying to contemplate what Munchel and Eisenhart would have done if members of Congress had still been present in the Senate Chamber when they entered it." U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced the pair, decided their case without a jury after a "stipulated bench trial." …
Eisenhart shouted, "Treason!" and "Cowards!" while she and her son stood in the Senate gallery, about 30 minutes after lawmakers fled the chamber. Munchel was carrying a handful of zip-tie cuffs as he leaped over a banister in the gallery.
Munchel was "ready to take hostages," and his mother was prepared to help him and "show Congress who was really in charge," prosecutors said.
"The logical inference is that Munchel and Eisenhart wanted to use the zip tie handcuffs to capture their enemies: the members of Congress voting to certify the election."
Courtroom groveler type:
"I know now that my actions were inexcusable and wrong," Munchel said.
