6 months in prison for Minnesotan who was at front of pro-Trump crowd during Jan. 6 insurrection at Capitol

A southern Minnesota man received a six-month prison term Monday for being at the front of the crowd with other supporters of then-President Donald Trump during the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol more than 3½ years ago.

Paul Orta Jr., 35, of Blue Earth, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after pleading guilty to civil disorder and aiding and abetting.

A criminal complaint filed in November 2023, laden with photographs, showed Orta tossing aside police barricades, rushing toward a line of officers and going into restricted areas of the Capitol as the House of Representatives was certifying Joe Biden’s election victory over Trump.

The plea agreement noted that federal sentencing guidelines call for Orta to receive a prison term ranging from eight to 14 months. Instead, he was given six months’ incarceration followed by a year of supervised release.

Orta’s plea deal also called for him to make $2,000 in restitution to the Architect of the U.S Capitol for his share of the nearly $3 million in damage to the building and its grounds during the mayhem.

Ahead of sentencing, Orta’s defense pushed for the court to spare him from being locked up, citing how quickly he accepted responsibility and his lack of a previous criminal history.

“Mr. Orta’s remorse was immediate,” the defense filing read. “He didn’t wait to feel guilty after watching the news. He didn’t wait to feel shame after being arrested. He knew he had broken the law; he knew that he had interfered with law enforcement. While on Capitol grounds, he recalls a moment later in the afternoon when he looked at the crowd around him and knew that everything was wrong, and that the entire day had been one long, horrible event.”

The prosecutors argued in a counter-filing for a one-year sentence followed by three years of supervised release, pointing out his removal of protective barriers, physical contact with officers and his shouting at one point, “We’re taking that [expletive] today!”

According to a U.S. Justice Department database, Orta is the 14th Minnesotan charged in the Jan. 6 insurrection. Overall, more than 1,400 people have been charged for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 500 charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement.

Orta saw himself in a photo from the insurrection that the FBI posted online, according to the complaint, and went to the agency’s Minneapolis field office on Jan. 25, 2021, to acknowledge his participation. He told FBI agents “he wanted to do the right thing,” the complaint noted. While admitting he went past the “first barrier,” he denied breaching the “second barrier” or entering the Capitol itself, the complaint said.

In entering his plea, Orta admitted to the following:

Orta arrived in a Washington suburb on Jan. 5, 2021, aboard a privately owned school bus sporting Trump 2020 graffiti that drew the attention of “a concerned citizen” who notified police. Orta and three others on the bus were checked for weapons and released. Soon afterward, the bus was stopped in Washington near the Capitol Mall by police, who searched the vehicle and found two guns and ammunition.

Video from police body cameras and other sources show Orta throwing a security barricade aside and “beckoning the remaining crowd beyond the perimeter to move forward,” the charges read. It was about then that the crowd began moving onto the Capitol grounds, overwhelming the officers and sending them into retreat.

Orta and others pushed ahead toward the Capitol and began pulling away metal bike racks that police were using to keep the intruders at bay. Orta made it to the top of a concrete wall, where he stood with a fist raised.

Some in the crowd broke into the building, spawning the destructive onslaught that sent members of Congress and others running for their lives. The certification proceedings were halted but ultimately carried out later that day.