Dillon man found guilty for participating in Jan. 6 insurrection
Nicole Girten
(Daily Montanan) A Dillon man was found guilty of felony and misdemeanor charges related to his participation in the Jan. 6 insurrection in Washington, D.C.
The U.S. District Court in the nation’s capital found Henry Phillip “Hank” Muntzer, 55, guilty of two felonies: obstruction of an official proceeding and civil disorder. Muntzer was found guilty of misdemeanor charges including disorderly conduct in a Capitol building; entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building.
Sentencing is scheduled for June 20.
Muntzer is one of 1,313 people who have been charged across 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.
Former President Donald Trump was indicted last year for efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election leading up to the violence at the U.S. Capitol in 2021.
According to the government’s trial brief, Muntzer was one of the last rioters in the U.S. Capitol’s rotunda on Jan. 6, 2021. He had attended Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally with friends and joined the crowd going to the capitol building after.
After going into the restricted perimeter, while other rioters had already breached the scaffolding erected at the West Plaza’s north side, Muntzer joined agitators surging up the northwest stairs and reached the Upper West Terrace, where Muntzer recorded videos where he said he had passed “through all the tear gas” to “tak[e] the Capitol by storm.”
Muntzer then made his way to the Senate Chamber, and once inside got into a series of physical confrontations with law enforcement officers. He then went to the Rotunda, where he joined a crowd of rioters in confronting a group of police officers blocking a doorway leading to the Capitol’s Upper West Terrace. Muntzer positioned himself at the front of this crowd and joined in a collective effort to push back the officers, who had their backs to a set of stairs.
Muntzer was among rioters who resisted police attempts to clear the Rotunda, and was one of the last to do so, exiting the Capitol building just after 3:20 p.m.
The FBI arrested Muntzer on Jan. 18, 2021.