January 6, 2021

[Pipe_Dream]

Matthew Perna was not violent. He attacked no one. He walked through an open door manned by two Capitol police officers who did not attempt to stop him. He took photos. When two alleged acquaintances who followed Perna on Facebook notified the FBI that he was one of the individuals on the FBI’s wanted list, he discovered he was on the list and turned himself in to his local FBI office. A week later, six FBI agents arrested him at his home, He was charged with a felony count of obstruction of an official proceeding and three trespassing misdemeanors. With the case drawing out, Perna plead guilty in a plea offer. But Matthew Graves, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, according to Perna's attorney, planned to seek a lengthy prison sentence for Perna after he plead guilty to all four charges. “What drove him (Perna) over the edge was the government announced it would seek an eight-level enhancement [to his sentence] for threatening to cause physical injury to a person in order to obstruct the administration of justice,” said Perna's attorney. Perna, who committed no violent crime and has no criminal record would have faced 57 to 71 months in prison.