A minister and Navy veteran from East Liverpool, Ohio, is the latest defendant from the tri-state region to be convicted of federal felonies in assaulting police during the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot in support of Donald Trump’s lies.
A federal jury in Washington, D.C., on Thursday found Kenneth Joseph Thomas, 41, guilty of attacking officers, obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder and engaging in violence on Capitol grounds.
Thomas called himself “Pi Annon” online and on the night of Jan. 5, 2021, convened a “MAGA Caravan” of some 60 vehicles heading from Ashland, Va., to Washington to attend Trump’s rally in which the soon-to-be ex-president lied that the election had been stolen.
At the Capitol on Jan. 6, video footage places Thomas at the Upper West Terrace at 3:30 p.m. standing in front of a line of police. When the crowd surged forward, Thomas twice charged the line of officers and hit and shoved two of them, prosecutors said.
An hour after that skirmish, in a different part of the Upper West Terrace, video shows Thomas advancing on a line of officers and pushing against their shields.
At 4:26 p.m., officers started to advance to push the crowd from the steps. Thomas turned to the other rioters and told them to “hold the line.” He repeated it over and over, prosecutors said, as he locked arms with fellow rioters to resist police.
A few minutes later, Thomas rushed to the front of the rioters and threw himself into the police line.
Officers testified that Thomas was one of the first rioters to start hitting them and pushing against their line.
On a fundraising website set up for Thomas called Help Joseph Thomas Let Freedom Sing, he is described as an “independent Christian minister,” a married father of four, and a U.S. Navy veteran who served during the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
The site argued that Thomas didn’t enter the Capitol and didn’t engage in or promote any violence, but the evidence at trial showed that he clearly did.
The site also said Thomas had started a campaign for Jan. 6 rioters — he calls them “political prisoners” — being held in jail in D.C. to sing the national anthem together every night at 9 p.m. from their cells as a show of “solidarity.”
His supporters also asked for money, as many rioters have done.
“Please find it in your heart to give,” the site said. “Every little bit will help him in this fight against the egregious charges put forth by the Department of Justice.”
A federal judge set sentencing for September.
More than 1,000 people have been arrested in the Capitol riot case, at least two dozen of them from Western Pennsylvania and nearby communities in Ohio and West Virginia. The FBI is hunting for more.
Torsten covers the courts for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, but he's currently on strike. Reach him at jtorsteno@gmail.com.
