Austin man is first Minnesotan sent to prison for breaching Capitol on Jan. 6

two men inside the U.S. Capitol
Daniel Johnson (left, circled in blue) and Daryl Johnson (right, circled in red) as seen in the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Jan. 6, 2021.
Court documents

A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a southern Minnesota man to four months in prison for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Daniel Eugene Johnson, 30, of Austin, Minn., pleaded guilty earlier this year to a felony count of obstructing U.S. Capitol Police during a civil disorder. The sentence is shy of the six months that prosecutors had sought.

Johnson admitted entering the building through a broken window before joining a mob in the Rotunda that overran police and allowed more rioters into the building. Authorities did not accuse Johnson of attacking police directly.

He's among eight Minnesotans charged in the January 6 insurrection, and the first to be sentenced to prison.

The only other Minnesota defendant sentenced so far, Jordan Kenneth Stotts of Moorhead, received 60 days of home confinement after pleading guilty last year to misdemeanor charges.

At the hearing on Wednesday, Judge Dabney Friedrich also sentenced Johnson's father and co-defendant Daryl Johnson of Saint Ansgar, Iowa, to 30 days in prison on the same charge.

Friedrich ordered both men to pay $2,000 in restitution and also imposed an additional $2,000 fine on Daryl Johnson.

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