Nazi sympathizer who stormed Capitol on Jan. 6 sentenced to 4 years in prison

(JTA) – A Navy contractor and ex-Army reservist who took part in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol and has a history of making antisemitic and white supremacist statements was sentenced Thursday to four years in prison.

Timothy Hale-Cusanelli, who sported a “Hitler mustache” and was known to joke about killing and eating Jews, was captured on video breaching the Capitol and leading others inside in a right-wing mob’s efforts to prevent the Senate to certify Joe Biden’s election as president. He was convicted in May of all five charges against him. 

At Hale-Cusanelli’s sentencing, the judge said his “sexist, racist and antisemitic comments” were motivators for his actions on that fateful day. He did not appear to belong to any organized hate groups.

The fifth Jan. 6 defendant to face a jury trial, Hale-Cusanelli gained outsized public attention owing to his Hitler-styled appearance and an uncovered history of antisemitic and white supremacist activity (though he unsuccessfully argued at his trial that his comments were “ironic humor,” not what he really believed, and also claimed to be half-Jewish and half-Puerto Rican). 

He was held in custody until his trial in part because prosecutors argued the New Jersey native would be a danger to the local Jewish community if he were released.

Prosecutors continued to hammer home his ideological leanings at his sentencing, where he also received three years of supervised release and was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.

“It is well established in the record at this point that Hale-Cusanelli subscribes to White Supremacist and Nazi-Sympathizer ideologies that drive his enthusiasm for another civil war and formed the basis of this Court’s pretrial determination that Hale-Cusanelli was a danger to the community,” prosecutor Kathryn Fifield wrote in her sentencing memorandum.