Former Republican Party mayoral candidate pleads guilty to charges related to January 6 riots
A former Connecticut councilman who won his city's Republican mayoral primary while under indictment over the Jan. 6, 2021 Capitol riot has pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault for his role in the attack.
The former councilman, Gino DiGiovanni Jr. of Derby, Conn., pleaded guilty Friday to a misdemeanor charge of entering or remaining in any restricted building or grounds, court records show. He entered the plea via videoconference during a hearing before a federal judge in Washington.
Mr. DiGiovanni, 42, was originally charged with several other crimes, which were dropped under a plea agreement with federal prosecutors that his lawyer, Martin J. Minnella, called a “fair resolution” of “an unfortunate situation.”
Mr. DiGiovanni lost the general election in November in Derby, an old mill town of about 12,000 residents 10 miles west of New Haven. He faces a year in prison when sentenced in April, but Mr Minnella said he hoped his client would be spared jail.
“There are people who did very terrible things that day,” Minnella said in an interview on Sunday. “Gino was not one of them, and he will not tolerate what they did.”
Mr. DiGiovanni is one of more than 1,265 people charged in connection with the January 6 riot, when supporters of former President Donald J. Trump stormed the Capitol in an attempt to block President Biden's recognition as the winner of the 2020 election to disturb. , the Ministry of Justice said. Mr. Trump faces federal conspiracy charges stemming from the riot, and a federal investigation into the day's events continues.
Mr. DiGiovanni told the New York Times last fall that he traveled to Washington on the day of the riot to hear a speech from Mr. Trump, then followed the crowd to the Capitol. He said he entered the building through a door held open by a Capitol Police officer, took a quick look around and left, adding that he did not see or be involved in any violence.
“I didn't go there to overthrow the government,” he told The Times, adding: “I didn't know there would be a quote-unquote uprising.”
Mr. DiGiovanni, a contractor by trade, was not a councilor at the time of the riot. He was elected to the Derby Board of Aldermen, the city's legislative body, in November 2021. Federal authorities accused him last August of being in the Capitol illegally based on photos unearthed by online sleuths.
He won the Republican mayoral primary the following month, defeating the incumbent president, Richard Dziekan, by 10 votes out of approximately 400 votes cast. Mr. DiGiovanni, the chairman of the Derby Republican Committee, lost the general election to Joseph DiMartino, the Democratic candidate, while Mr. Dziekan ran as an independent.