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 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!”