A Navy Reservist on January 6 is convicted of obstructing Congress during US Capitol attack

By Edward Era Barbacena

CNN: A man who was serving in the Navy Reserves when he participated in the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol was convicted Tuesday of all five counts he faced for his actions that day.

Hatchet Speed served as petty officer first class in the Navy Reserves and was recently employed by a “cleared defense contractor,” according to the Justice Department.

According to the Navy Reserves, his most recent duty station was the Naval Information Warfare Systems Command and before that, the Navy Criminal Investigative Service, or NCIS.

District Judge Trevor McFadden, who handed down the verdict following a bench trial in Washington, DC, found Speed guilty of obstructing an official proceeding as well as disorderly conduct in the Capitol and several other misdemeanors.

McFadden said Hatchet’s comments to an undercover FBI employee as well as his participation in the mob that day was enough to prove beyond a reasonable doubt that he intentionally obstructed the Congressional proceedings.

“I think the evidence on this point is the strongest and most damning,” McFadden said.

According to court documents, Speed told the undercover FBI employee in March, 2022, that after he heard Vice President Mike Pence was not stopping or changing the electoral votes, he decided to go inside the Capitol to try to take control.

“I was like, ‘I’m going in there. Like I have no respect for people in this building. They have no respect for me. I have no respect for them.’” Speed told the employee. “So we all went in and we took control. Like, when you have that many thousands of people, like there’s nothing the cops can do … it’s impressive.”

In January, Speed also was convicted by a jury in Virginia of illegally possessing multiple firearm silencers and will be sentenced for the offense in April.

During the hearing Tuesday, McFadden read aloud a text Speed sent on January 6, writing: “We made it to the Crypt (in the Capitol) with sheer force of numbers.” Speed, according to McFadden, also said Speed and others left the building only because they believed then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi agreed to delay the certification for 10 days.