Capitol rioter argues loss of marriage, job should be plenty of punishment, without jail – By Tribune News Service (Oregonlive) / March 14, 2022
A Trump supporter from Pennsylvania who lost her nursing job and her marriage to a police officer after she stormed the Capitol is asking for probation instead of the short jail term that prosecutors want.
Jennifer Heinl, 44, will be sentenced next week in the District of Columbia for demonstrating in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor, when she stormed the building in support of former President Donald Trump’s false election fraud claims. She pleaded guilty in November.
Federal prosecutors are asking for two weeks in jail and three years of probation, saying Heinl witnessed rioters fighting with police outside the Capitol but still went in, stayed inside for 47 minutes while filming what was happening, lied to an FBI agent who called her, and showed no remorse in a second interview with the FBI after her plea.
Her lawyer, Martin Dietz, is requesting probation, arguing that his client is “extremely remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed” for participating in what he called an “unjustifiable attack on America.”
