A Portland man has pleaded guilty to storming the U.S. Capitol during the riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Michael Gerard Fournier, 46, signed a plea deal with prosecutors on April 9 in exchange for them dropping two charges, according to the Portland Press Herald.
Fournier pleaded guilty Wednesday to disorderly conduct and parading in a restricted area, the Press Herald reported.
Fournier faces up to six months in jail on each charge, and he will pay $500 in restitution to the Architect of the U.S. Capitol. The riot caused more than $2.9 million in damage to the complex, according to the Press Herald.
Fournier was arrested in January for storming the Capitol, during which rioters loyal to Donald Trump attempted to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory.
In announcing the charges, the FBI said that an anonymous tipster fingered Fournier as one of the rioters just days after the failed attempt to overturn the 2020 election results. That tipster later identified Fournier in a surveillance photograph.
His brother also twice told the FBI that Fournier was at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but he wouldn’t identify Fournier in surveillance photographs.
Fournier walked around the Capitol for about 10 minutes, at one point carrying around a painting. While leaving, he placed his hands on a Capitol police officer and then exchanged words with the officer, according to the FBI.
“Despite the broken glass, the blaring alarm, the police line in the Rotunda, and interacting with a police officer in the entryway of the Rotunda doors, Fournier did not leave the restricted area around the U.S. Capitol,” the FBI said in a statement of facts in January.
BDN writer Marie Weidmayer contributed to this report.
