A Chesapeake, Virginia man who posted pictures and videos to Facebook of himself participating in the January 6 insurrection attempt admitted guilt in court on Thursday.
According to the terms of Jacob Hiles's plea agreement, Hiles pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building when he appeared before U.S. District Judge Amy Jackson on Thursday.
When asked by the judge if he had anything he wanted to say, Hiles said "No, your honor, I just want to plead guilty."
Hiles was arrested in January when according to an FBI affidavit "multiple Facebook friends" of his sent them videos and photos Hiles had posted of himself at the riots, beginning with a selfie of "a bearded individual wearing a dark in color sweatshirt bearing the words "F**K ANTIFA," a tan in color neck gaiter, baseball cap, and tan in color goggles" posted at 5:46 AM on the morning of January 6, 2021, with the caption: "Feelin cute...might start a revolution later, IDK – in Capitol Hill."
Several hours later, Hiles appeared to reference the shooting of protestor Ashli Babbitt who was shot and killed by Capitol police as she was trying to gain access to the speaker's lobby, writing on Facebook: "After being tear gassed for an hour, we entered the capitol [sic], thousands of us. The fbi shot and killed a woman in front of us. We followed the trail of her blood out of the building."
Again, at 4:36 p.m. the affidavit, which included a screencap, said Hiles posted a video of himself wearing ski goggles standing in front of the Capitol building saying the media was ignoring that the FBI had shot and killed a woman. In actuality, it was Capitol police.
The affidavit then references a Facebook post on the same day showing a video of an individual identified as Hiles inside the Capitol building with a group of people "smoking an unidentified substance." The accompanying caption reads "I'm not a smoker AT ALL, but when the cop asks you if you are gonna hit that, I ain't gonna let it g..."
On Thursday Hiles became the 56th defendant of charges related to rioting at the U.S. Capitol insurrection attempt to plead guilty.
"Mr. Hiles has accepted responsibility for his actions and wishes to move on with his life," Hiles' attorney, Alexander H. Bell, told Newsweek.
In exchange for the guilty plea, the Department of Justice will drop three other misdemeanor charges against him. Hiles will face up to six months in prison and pay $500 in damages. He was ordered to return to court in December for sentencing.
Update (9/10/2021, 5:15 p.m.): This article has been updated to include comment from Hiles' attorney.
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