Appeals court upholds conviction of former Capitol police officer who tried to help rioter
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court on Friday upheld the conviction of a former U.S. Capitol police officer who tried to help a Virginia fisherman evade criminal charges for participating in a mob attack on the building his law enforcement colleagues were defending on Jan. 6, 2021.
A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the government’s evidence against Michael Angelo Riley “simply supports” his conviction for obstruction of justice.
Riley, a 25-year police veteran, argued that prosecutors failed to prove that a grand jury proceeding was foreseeable or that he deleted his Facebook posts to influence one. The panel rejected those arguments as “flawed.”
“Riley was a veteran Capitol Police officer who said he was aware of the role of grand juries in the criminal process, and his own messages indicated he expected charges to be filed on January 6 for unauthorized entry into the Capitol building,” Judge Cornelia Pillard wrote.
In October 2022, a jury convicted Riley of one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, but they did not move forward with a second count of obstruction. In April 2023, U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson sentenced Riley to two years’ probation and four months’ home confinement.
Riley, a Maryland resident, was on duty when a mob attacked the Capitol on Jan. 6. That day, Riley investigated a report of an explosive device at the Republican National Committee headquarters and assisted an injured officer.
The next day, Riley read a Facebook post from Jacob Hiles, a fisherman he knew from YouTube videos. Hiles wrote about his own participation in the riot and posted a video of rioters clashing with police.
Riley sent Hiles a private message, identifying himself as a Capitol Police officer who agreed with his “political stance.”
“Take out the part about you being in the building that they are currently investigating and everyone who was in the building is going to be charged. Just look outside!” Riley wrote.
Riley deleted their private messages after Hiles told him the FBI was “very curious” about their communications, prosecutors said.
Hiles pleaded guilty in September 2021 to a misdemeanor charge in connection with the Capitol riots and was later sentenced to two years of probation.