Gracyn Courtright, 24, surged into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, wandered around with a U.S. Senate “Members Only” sign, walked all the way onto the evacuated Senate floor and then left the building after about 24 minutes, pumping her arms in the air.
Through it all, security cameras recorded her presence as she walked through the Capitol wearing a blue and gold “West Virginia Mountaineers” snow hat.
After it was over, Courtright considered her own place in history. “Infamy is just as good as fame. Either way I end up more known. XOXO,” she captioned a photo of herself that she posted on the social networking site Instagram.
Federal prosecutors are recommending six months of jail time for Courtright, a Hurricane native who has been suspended from the University of Kentucky. U.S. District Judge Christopher Cooper will determine whether that is appropriate during a sentencing hearing scheduled for 10 a.m. Friday.
Courtright’s own lawyer, not surprisingly, has an empathetic view of her situation — recommending just 30 days in jail. Until now, she has been allowed to remain at home while her case winds through court.
Her lawyer, Thomas Abbenante, described her in a court filing not as someone intent on disrupting the peaceful transfer of power; she hadn’t even voted in the 2020 election. Instead, Abbenante wrote, she wanted to witness the history of President Donald Trump’s speech that day at the Ellipse.
“Ms. Courtright did not set out from her small hometown of Hurricane, West Virginia to subvert democracy. She came to see former President Trump speak at the rally which was supposed to be his last. She thought it would be an historical event. She didn’t even vote in the election,” Abbenante wrote of Courtright in a sentencing memorandum. “The security officials at the event ushered her into a 3rd row seat. She was excited to be that close to President Trump.”
The audience, including Courtright from the third row, would hear Trump say, “We fight like hell. And if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.” And then, as the president’s speech that day concluded: “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
So, that is what Courtright did.
“After his speech, she marched with others to the Capitol,” Abbenante wrote. “She never had any intention of participating in any violence or breaking any laws.”
Courtright has pleaded guilty to one count of unlawfully and knowingly entering and remaining in a restricted building and grounds. In considering how much jail time she might have to serve, Judge Cooper will reflect not only on Courtright’s specific actions but also on the effect she had as one individual among the many who surged into the Capitol that day.
Prosecutors recognize the wide range of intentions and actions — from participants who committed violent acts to those who were swept up in the crowd. But the cumulative effect, prosecutors say, disrupted the democratic process, resulted in millions of dollars in damage to the Capitol, required the evacuations of Congress and Vice President Mike Pence and cost the lives of protesters and police officers.
Every riot, in other words, is made up of individual rioters.
“The Court must also consider that the defendant’s conduct on January 6, like the conduct of scores of other defendants, took place in the context of a large and violent riot that relied on numbers to overwhelm law enforcement, breach the Capitol, and disrupt the proceedings. But for her actions alongside so many others, the riot likely would have failed,” federal prosecutors wrote in their own sentencing memorandum about Courtright.
The big picture
Of the thousands of protesters in Washington, D.C., that day, about 800 went into the Capitol, police have said.
West Virginians facing federal charges of entering the Capitol that day are Courtright; Morgantown sandwich shop owner George Tanios; former Parkersburg Councilman Eric Barber, former state Delegate Derrick Evans of Wayne County, who resigned after being charged, and college senior Gracyn Courtright of Hurricane.
Courtright’s case has progressed the farthest. Barber has a plea hearing scheduled for 3 p.m. Thursday.
These individual cases are being processed in the federal court system against the backdrop of a congressional inquiry about the broader events of that day. Congress’s Jan. 6 Committee has been delving into conversations and planning that took place prior to that day at levels far above most of the citizens now accused in the courts.
Congressman Alex Mooney, R-W.Va., today described that committee’s work as a “witch hunt,” saying he has few remaining questions about what happened at the Capitol that day. He twice voted against versions of committees to examine what happened and why on Jan. 6.
But Mooney did express support today for the prosecution of the individuals who rushed into the Capitol.
Mooney, appearing on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” was reacting to the congressional committee’s push to charge former White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows with contempt. He made no specific comments about Courtright or any of the other West Virginians facing charges from Jan. 6. Mooney did describe prosecutions of rioters as appropriate while characterizing a wider investigation of what inspired the riot as unnecessary.
“From what I’ve seen they’ve very aggressively prosecuted those who went in there. A lot of are still sitting in a federal jail cell. They’ve gotten videos and gone out and arrested people. I wish they would do this for other riots as well, not just this attack on the Capitol. But look, I’m for enforcing the law. If someone broke the law, you should enforce it. And I think it’s been enforced,” Mooney said.
But he said the Jan. 6 Committee is out of balance, with only two Republicans serving. “It’s not a fair commission, and that’s why I think it’s a witch hunt,” Mooney said. He added, “If we’re going to impeach a president or have these kind of witch hunts because Donald Trump said ‘Get out there and fight for your values,’ every politician would be guilty of that. President Trump actually said ‘Protest peacefully.’ He said ‘peacefully,’ so I am satisfied.”
.@RepAlexMooney voted against holding former Trump Chief of Staff Mark Meadows in contempt. Mooney gives his explanation to @HoppyKercheval. WATCH: https://t.co/yCFQ3nm85Y pic.twitter.com/TLx3MBoqsZ
— MetroNews (@WVMetroNews) December 15, 2021
Where Courtright went and what she did
Courtright’s lawyer contends she got caught up in the hysteria of the day, following the flow of the crowd. “Her conduct on January 6th, while admittedly unlawful, was neither aggressive nor malicious,” the lawyer wrote.
Her interview with prosecutors indicates she saw people carrying a large flag and joined in to help carry it, winding up at the Capitol and waiting in line to go inside.
A timeline of that day’s events shows the first entry into the Capitol at 2:12 p.m. through a window that was broken with a plastic shield. A door at the northwest side was then opened for others to pour through. At 2:13 p.m., Vice President Pence was led off the Senate floor, and the Senate went into recess.
At 2:42 p.m., Courtright entered the Capitol building through the Parliamentarian Door that had been breached only about 20 seconds earlier. The first few people through the door near the West Senate Stairs had engaged in a brief struggle with law enforcement officers, according to federal prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation for Courtright.
Courtright stepped over broken glass, later telling prosecutors “she was focused on turning on her phone and did not pay attention to what was going on around her.”
She did remember seeing a circle of law enforcement officers, people chanting, people trying to break property — and other people offering guidance to not break property. Courtright’s focus was different, according to prosecutors. “After she entered the building, she started looking for a place to charge her phone.”
Courtright recalled to investigators that she asked a police officer if she was allowed to be there and that the response was “I don’t even know.” But a footnote in the sentencing memo notes that Courtright was unable to describe what officer made that statement, where it was made or at what point the statement was made.
Courtright went deeper into the Capitol, taking cell phone videos while she stood near a group of people chanting at officers: “Whose house? Our house.” She posted the videos to her Twitter account with one captioned, “PEACEFULLY CHANTING!!!!!!! Nobody fighting or destroying anything some of my cnn and Fox News watchers need to think for themselves.”
About 3 p.m., Courtright saw some “Members Only” signs for the Senate, wanted one for a picture, picked it up and started walking upstairs toward the Senate chamber.
About 3:04 p.m. Courtright briefly stepped onto the Senate floor, where certification of the 2020 presidential election was supposed to be taking place. Her image, still with the “Members Only” sign, was captured by surveillance. Courtright told investigators she didn’t actually know where she was at first.
Federal investigators have been going through a mountain of images from surveillance, body cams and private video. Investigators noticed Courtright’s image among the crowd on the Senate floor only after she had already agreed to a plea deal. “Had this video been discovered earlier,” prosecutors wrote in a footnote, “Courtright likely would have faced felony charges.”
She walked back downstairs, where a police officer took back the “Members Only” sign she’d still carried. After about 24 minutes total, Courtright left the Capitol after hearing a police officer announce that anyone still inside could be hit with a trespassing ticket. At 3:06 p.m. she left the building through the North Door. She pumped her arms in the air, another action that wound up being captured on the video camera above.
Will follow her the rest of her life
Ten days after that, Jan. 16, Courtright was notified of federal charges. Her lawyer described her as embarrassed and her parents as furious. Just weeks from her degree from the University of Kentucky, she was suspended.
“Her conviction and her involvement in this case will follow her the rest of her life,” wrote her lawyer, Abbenante. “Potential employers, potential friends, will be able to find all the details online. It is a hefty price to pay for a first offense. She will be labeled as a participant in the January 6th riot for the rest of her life.”
Federal prosecutors say examples must be made of people like Courtright to discourage others who might engage in similar behavior. They heavily weigh her brazen social media posts and her steps into the Senate chamber.
“The demands of general deterrence weigh in favor of incarceration, as they will for nearly every case arising out of the violent riot at the Capitol. Indeed, general deterrence may be the most compelling reason to impose a sentence of incarceration,” prosecutors wrote.
“For the violence at the Capitol on January 6 was cultivated to interfere, and did interfere, with one of the most important democratic processes we have: the peaceful transfer of power to a newly elected President.”