Bentonville’s Nathan Hughes sentenced in Capitol riot case | Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

WASHINGTON – A Bentonville man was sentenced Monday to 25 months in prison for his role in the U.S. Capitol riot.

Nathan Earl Hughes, 35, told the judge he regrets his actions on January 6, 2021.

“I take responsibility for my mistakes, the fact that I was there and that things got out of control,” Hughes said. “I wasn’t there to cause chaos. That wasn’t my goal.”

Hughes pleaded guilty in August to three counts but denied assaulting a police officer as charged by federal prosecutors.

They said Hughes elbowed the officer once, then punched him twice with his hand as he tried to take a riot shield away from him during the melee between rioters and police in the Lower West Terrace tunnel.

In a sentencing hearing Monday, U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols said he believed Hughes’ actions amounted to aggravated assault when Hughes struck or attempted to strike the officer.

From a video shown in court, it was not clear whether Hughes actually punched the officer.

“The government has proven that Mr. Hughes actually assaulted Officer MM when he struck or attempted to strike him with his hand,” Nichols said, referring to part of the U.S. Sentencing Commission’s guidelines that define aggravated assault.

Hughes had four co-defendants in his case. They received sentences ranging from six to 18 months in prison.

“Fighting with and hitting an officer … that behavior was somewhat worse than any of his co-defendants here,” Nichols said during the hearing.

Nichols noted that attempting to take an officer’s riot shield would also be considered a common law offense, but aggravated assault increases the penalty based on federal guidelines.

The government had asked Nichols to sentence Hughes to 51 months in prison, arguing that “Hughes’ conduct constituted an aggravated assault because it was an aggravated assault involving the intent to commit another crime (civil tort).”

Hughes’ attorney, William L. Shipley, suggested probation instead. But in Monday’s hearing, Shipley said a sentence in line with the other four co-defendants would be appropriate.

Nichols said the sentencing guidelines — with aggravated assault — called for a prison term of 33 to 41 months.

Nichols said there were some factors working in Hughes’ favor. He is a successful businessman with no criminal history and a newborn child, the judge said.

But Hughes “displayed a significant lack of respect for the rule of law,” Nichols said.

In addition to 25 months in prison, the judge also ordered that Hughes’ sentence be followed by three years of supervised release. He also ordered Hughes to pay a $5,000 fine.

According to court documents from his lawyer, Hughes expects a pardon from President-elect Donald Trump when he takes office on January 20.

Nichols rejected a motion by Hughes to delay his sentencing until after Trump’s inauguration.

On August 6, Hughes pleaded guilty to three charges related to the riot, including two felonies – 18 USC Sec. 231(a)(3), interfere with the police during a civil disorder; and 18 USC Sec 111(a)(1), to assault, resist, or obstruct certain officers or employees.

According to Shipley, Hughes denies assaulting a police officer but admits to obstructing them.

The misdemeanor Hughes pleaded guilty to was 40 USC §5104(e)(2)(E), preventing passage through Capitol grounds or buildings.

In a court hearing Thursday, Shipley said he would present video at sentencing to show Hughes did not hit the officer, but Shipley presented no such video evidence during Monday’s hearing.

At Hughes’ Aug. 6 arraignment, Nichols said Hughes would be sentenced the same as other defendants on Jan. 6, noting that he had sentenced the four co-defendants in Hughes’ case.

But Hughes’ actions were far worse than those of his co-defendants, Assistant U.S. Attorney Sean McCauley wrote in his Dec. 6 sentencing memo.

“None of the accomplices were charged with or convicted of assault, as Hughes has been,” McCauley wrote. “All of the accomplices engaged in synchronized pushing with the crowd against the police, but none of them hit a particular officer, much less three times as Hughes did.”

According to the government’s Dec. 6 filing, Hughes grabbed an officer’s baton, which the officer had a firm grip on, and began pulling him. This knocked the officer off balance and opened him up to further assaults from additional rioters as he tried to clear them out of the tunnel. Then, just before At 3:19 p.m., Hughes grabbed the officer a second time and tried to pull him forward out of the tunnel, according to the filing.

“Seconds later, as Defendant Hughes was being pushed out of the tunnel mouth by the advancing officers, Defendant Hughes struck Officer MM with his elbow once and then with his fist twice in a hammer-style blow,” according to police. The probation officer’s pre-sentence report, which is not public, was cited in Hughes’ filing Thursday. “Immediately after accused Hughes assaulted him, Officer MM was dragged out of the tunnel and assaulted by the mob on Lower West Terrace before being dragged out of the mob by other rioters.”

In addition to Officer MM, prosecutors say Hughes also assaulted people who tried to stop rioters from smashing a window to an inner Senate office near the tunnel.

Prosecutors said Hughes changed clothes after President Trump’s Stop the Steal speech at The Ellipse on Jan. 6, 2021, before walking to the Capitol in an attempt to hide his identity.

But in Monday’s hearing, Hughes said he went back to his hotel to change clothes “because it was freezing.”

McCauley told Nichols that Hughes was wearing protective armor under his shirt, based on video from the riot.

Shipley said he was “a little bothered” by that accusation because he said there was no evidence for it.

McCauley said Hughes tried to obstruct the investigation in several ways.

He said Hughes called an FBI task force officer he knew after being questioned by other agents.

“He reached out to this person with the FBI,” McCauley said. “Hughes told this person he wasn’t going anywhere near the Capitol because things were crazy. This was clearly a lie.

“This is one of the most egregious cases of obstruction of evidence that I have ever seen,” McCauley said.

Hughes has been free since his arrest on August 30, 2023 in Fayetteville. When and where Hughes will report to prison will be determined later.