‘A very stupid idea’: Florida man who carried Pelosi’s podium in viral photo sentenced

A Florida man who grabbed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s podium and posed for photographs with it during the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Friday to more than two months in prison.

The image of Adam Johnson smiling and waving as he carried Pelosi’s podium went viral after the pro-Trump mob’s attack on Jan. 6, 2021. Johnson placed the podium in the center of the Capitol Rotunda, posed for pictures and pretended to make a speech, prosecutors said.

After driving home, Johnson bragged that he “broke the internet” and was “finally famous,” prosecutors said. They argued that his actions at the Capitol “illustrate his sense of entitlement and privilege.”

“The now-viral podium photo portrays Johnson as confident, arguably gleeful, while converting government property to his own use during an unlawful siege,” a prosecutor wrote in a court filing.

U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Johnson to 75 days in prison followed by one year of supervised release. The judge also ordered Johnson to pay a $5,000 fine and perform 200 hours of community service. Johnson will report to prison at a date to be determined.

Johnson told Walton that posing with Pelosi’s podium was a “very stupid idea.”

“I bear no ill will toward her or her office at all,” Johnson said.

Walton said America is on a dangerous path when many citizens believe that they “have a right to do whatever in order to have the person who they want in power sitting in the White House.”

“That’s what we see in banana republics,” the judge said. “That’s what we see in countries like we’re experiencing now over in Ukraine. That’s where we’re headed if we don’t do something to stop it. And I don’t know what we do to stop it.”

Prosecutors said they received a tip during plea negotiations with Johnson that he intended to publish a memoir. His plea agreement includes an unusual provision that requires him to relinquish compensation from any book, script, song, interview or product bearing his name or likeness, for up to five years.

Prosecutors recommended sentencing Johnson to three months’ imprisonment, one year of supervised release, a $5,000 fine and 60 hours of community service. Johnson’s attorneys asked the judge to sentence him to one year of probation with credit for the weekend that he spent in jail after his arrest.

The defense lawyers said Johnson didn’t know that the podium belonged to Pelosi when he moved it from a cloak room.

“Arguably, if he latched onto some other piece of government furniture for his photo opportunity jail time would not even be a consideration,” they wrote in a court filing.

Johnson was arrested two days after the deadly riot. He pleaded guilty in November to a charge of entering and remaining in a restricted building or ground, a misdemeanor punishable by a maximum of one year in prison.

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