Texan who bragged about drinking beer while storming Capitol sentenced – By Rachel Weiner (Washington Post) / April 22, 2022
A man who joked about storming the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, with a can of beer in his hand said Friday that he regretted his actions.
They were “stupid posts that were never meant to be taken seriously,” Thomas Paul Conover, 53, of Keller, Tex., said in federal court in Washington, D.C., before being sentenced for illegally demonstrating in the Capitol. “I now realize it was extremely inappropriate.” He said he was “ashamed” to be “forever entwined” with the violence of the day — “it’s not who I am.”
Conover recorded himself throughout the riot and posed for photographs inside with a can of beer. Outside, he announced on video, “I don’t always storm the Capitol of the United States of America, but when I do, I prefer Coors Light.”
He was “wandering around with his empty beer can” in “a sacred space,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean Murphy told the judge.
Judge Florence Y. Pan ordered Conover to spend 30 days in a halfway house, 36 months on probation, perform 60 hours of community service and pay a $2,500 fine.
