A Lehigh County man was convicted at trial last week of breaching the U.S. Capitol during the riots on Jan. 6, 2021.
Craig Michael Bingert, 31, was found guilty of assaulting police, breaking through a police line and storming the Capitol during a joint session of Congress, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney’s office.
Bingert’s attorney said he plans to appeal all seven convictions.
Bingert and 34-year-old Isaac Steve Sturgeon, of Dillon, Montana, grabbed a barricade and pushed it into a line of police officers, then joined other rioters crawling under the barricade to break the police line, the the U.S. Attorney’s office said.
They stayed in the Capitol, making their way to the inaugural stage until law enforcement removed them. The men were part of a mob disrupting the count of electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election.
Bingert and Sturgeon were each convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding; assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers; civil disorder; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; engaging in physical violence in a restricted building or grounds; and engaging in an act of physical violence in the grounds or any of the Capitol buildings.
Bingert will be sentenced Aug. 25.
Rudy Miller may be reached at rmiller@lehighvalleylive.com.
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