‘I hold politicians in the highest regard’: January 6 defendant sends letter to Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley apologizing for raiding his office after pleading guilty to entering the Capitol and texting a friend saying ‘Id do time for Trump’
- Jan. 6 defendant Francis Connor is seeking lesser sentence
- He said there was ‘zero malicious intent’
- He was captured on video inside the senators office
- Indictment says he entered the Capitol through open window
- Said he entered the building with ‘zero harmful intent’
- ‘I’ll do time for Donald’
A January 6 defendant has written Sen. Jeff Merkley saying he had ‘zero malicious intent’ when he walked into the Democrat’s Senate office on Jan. 6th after climbing through a window to the Capitol.
The defendant, Francis Connor, is seeking more lenient sentencing after pleading guilty to engaging in disorderly conduct inside the Capitol.
In his letter addressed to Merkley, Connor said he found himself at the wrong place at the wrong time’ when he went inside Merkley’s office on a day rioters battled Capitol police officers and stormed the building.
‘Unfortunately I found myself in the wrong place at the wrong time on January 6th, 2021,’ he wrote Merkely. ‘I entered the Capitol Building with zero harmful intent, just curiosity as to what was going on around me, just curiosity as to what was going on around me
Defendant Francis Connor (circled in blue) wrote Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) saying there was ‘zero malicious intent’ when he entered the senator’s office on Jan 6, 2020
‘As I walked in to an open door on my left, I found myself in a senator’s office which I later found out to be yourself. Nothing was stolen or vandalized, I was just caught on a live feed looking through some books on your bookshelf,’ Connor continued.
He also referenced security footage that contributed to his conviction.
‘That video and my presence there that day in general is not the best way I’d like to be characterized. If I knew that was a senator’s office, I wouldn’t have entered because I hold our country’s politicians in the highest regard,’ he said, in a letter where he stopped short of saying he apologized.
‘Senator Merkley I wanted to write this letter in good faith to you so you know there was zero malicious intent behind my actions that day,’ he wrote.
Charging documents and video footage fill in Connor’s conduct that day. Responding to an Instagram message that agents were rounding up people who entered the capitol, he responded to another defendant with an expletive.
Connor wrote the letter as he seeks leniency in sentencing
Merkley and other lawmakers were in the Capitol to perform their official duty, counting the votes certified by states in the presidential election
Connor’s defense was harmed by an Instagram message where he said ‘I was in the Capitol’ and used an expletive when told agents were on the lookout for those who breached the building
Francis Connor and Antonio Ferrigno were both arraigned after the FBI found them living in Brooklyn, NY and the investigators had proof of photos and videos of the two of them in the Capitol on the day of the insurrection
A charging document identified defendants Connor and Antonio Ferrigno ‘as within the designated working space of a United States Senator’
‘I’ll do time for Donald,’ he wrote, referencing former President Donald Trump, whose claims of election fraud the House Jan. 6th committee says helped inspire the riot.
‘Civil war time,’ he wrote in another message.
He likely undercut potential avenues for defense when he wrote in response to his associate’s Instagram images: ‘I was in the Capitol building.’
His lawyer, public defender John J Gilsenan elaborated in a statement. ‘When Francis strolled through an office in the Capitol on January 6, he had no idea it belonged to Senator Jeff Merkley. Amongst his regrets from that day, Francis is ashamed that he disrespected Senator Merkley by traipsing through his office,’ he said, Yahoo News reported.
‘It’s the type of disrespectful behavior Francis loathes in others, so he wrote the Senator an apology letter,’ he added.
Connor pleaded guilty in April to a series of offenses connected to the riot.
These included disorderly conduct in a restricted building, disorderly conduct in the Capitol, and parading in the Capitol, a lower level charged used against many of the rioters.
The feds charged Connor last August when he was a 23-year old Brooklyn resident. One image showed him posing in the crypt of the Capitol on its ground floor, wearing a Trump hat and MAGA scarf.