Hunter Seefried said he was deeply sorry for and ashamed of his actions, asking himself every day how he came to participate “in a day that will forever represent a stain on the character of our country.”
“I offer my sincerest apology to the country, its schoolchildren, and everyone who saw the worst of me and everyone on January 6,” Seefried said. He also apologized to the courts, government and his parents, “who my criminal behavior has placed in the spotlight.”
“I pray our country can recover,” added Seefried, a drywall delivery truck driver who said he is 22, but who prosecutors said was 24.
Seefried was found guilty with his father, Kevin Seefried, 53 — who paraded with a Confederate flag in the building — at a bench trial in July of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress as lawmakers met to confirm President Biden’s 2020 election victory. The obstruction charge is a felony and both were also convicted of trespassing and related misdemeanor offenses. The elder Seefried faces sentencing in January. Both men are from Laurel, Del.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Benet Kearney requested a 64-month prison term for the younger Seefried, saying he was one of the first handful of rioters who broke into the building after clearing glass shards from a shattered window at the Senate wing door.
Seefried confronted an officer inside, and then with his father joined a group of rioters who pursued U.S. Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman toward the main entrance to the Senate chamber.
“Hunter Seefried’s participation in the riot was purposeful, aggressive, and rife with disregard and disrespect for the police officers whose duty on January 6 was to protect the Capitol and guard the peaceful transition of power during the election certification process,” Kearney and Assistant U.S. Attorney Brittany Reed wrote, adding that he should be sentenced more stiffly than rioters who pleaded guilty to the same offense before trial.
Defense attorney Edson Bostic said Hunter Seefried showed no trace of ideological motivation or planning for violence, was barely 21 at the time and was heavily influenced by his father.
“You have a young man who for 99 percent of his life did things right,” Bostic said. Seefried dropped out of school in the ninth grade but has worked continually since, his attorney said.
U.S. District Judge Trevor N. McFadden asked why Seefried did not stay back in the crowd with his mother and his girlfriend rather than help lead the mob break-in.
“The crowd, the energy was just overwhelming. It’s no excuse,” Seefried said. “I would say my father, but I’m old enough to know.”
McFadden said the men participated in “a national embarrassment” that injured more than 100 police officers and caused millions of dollars of damage to a “sacred” building. The judge also called their pursuit of Goodman “humiliating and degrading to everyone who believes in law and order” and an “affront to our system of government.”
Still, McFadden said he was very aware of the younger Seefried’s age and the “impulsiveness attributable to age.”
“I believe you are a good man who messed up badly,” McFadden said, “but I believe you recognize you messed up, and that also is part of criminal justice.”
He rejected a government request to raise Seefried’s recommended sentencing range to 57 to 71 months, finding that it did not involve “causing or threatening injury to a person or damage to property ‘in order to obstruct the administration of justice.’” But it did result in substantial interference, McFadden said, ruling out probation and home confinement as the defense requested.
Seefried “owes a debt to society,” McFadden said. He added that while this period is no doubt the bleakest of Seefried’s life, he believes the letters of support offered by friends and family of the defendant’s “strong work ethic” and that he has “a lot to offer those around him” upon release, concluding: “It is up to you.”