A North Brunswick man convicted last summer of a dozen felonies for waging a sustained physical attack at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, including assaulting police officers, will spend 12 years in prison.
Christopher Quaglin, 38, was handed the sentence Friday byJudge Trevor McFadden in federal court in Washington, D.C. He’s been incarcerated in the nation’s capital since his February 2021 arrest.
Quaglin agreed to a bench trial, where the judge acts as jury, and McFadden found him guilty of 14 charges, 12 of them felonies that have to do with committing violence, including assaulting and injuring police officers.
At Friday’s sentencing, McFadden said Quaglin had shown no remorse in the three years since his arrest, and rebuked his “shocking and lawless” conduct on Jan. 6, according to WUSA9 TV. “I’ve sentenced a number of Jan. 6 defendants who clearly got caught up in something they didn’t anticipate,” McFadden said. “But not you.”
And, McFadden said, “You are a menace to our society,” the station reported.
Before his sentence, Quaglin accused McFadden and the government in a conspiracy-laden rant of colluding to “torture” him, WUSA9 reported. As he left the courtroom after the sentencing, Quaglin reportedly said to the judge, “You’re Trump’s worst mistake of 2016.” (Trump nominated McFadden to the bench in 2017.)
A federal prosecutor, Ashley Akers, argued in a presentence report that Quaglin serve 14 years, describing in lengthy detail how he fought for three hours at the Capitol that day, for which he had planned and was prepared, by donning a gas mask and helmet.
Akers said Quaglin was, “among the most violent of the January 6 rioters.”
“Quaglin understood the constitutional significance of January 6, and intended to disrupt Congress’ certification of the 2020 election by any means necessary, including by viciously assaulting police officers for hours. Quaglin started planning this violence well before January 6,” the prosecutor’s report says.
He repeatedly called for “Civil War” on social media, gathered the protective gear that he would bring and wear, invited others and encouraged people to attend by booking blocks of hotel rooms and boasted online that armed patriots would storm the Capitol, the report says.
Akers wrote that Quaglin has expressed no remorse for his crimes and instead, “sought attention and disclaimed any responsibility for his role in the riot.”
The prosecutor also argued for an $82,000 fine, the amount Quaglin raised in an online fundraiser. “Quaglin should not be able to ‘capitalize’ on his participation in the Capitol breach in this way,” Akers wrote.
Quaglin’s attorney, Kristi Fulnecky, of Missouri, argued in her presentence report that her client be sentenced to time served, the three years he’s been behind bars. He is a “family man, father, husband, and electrician from New Jersey with no criminal record except for driving under the influence 17 years ago.” (The report also says his wife has filed for divorce.)
“Mr. Quaglin has been very vocal about being a political prisoner and how he has been treated differently and charged differently as a conservative than if he had been part of liberal riots, such as with Black Lives Matter, Antifa, current university riots, or other similar riots,” Fulnecky wrote.
Fulnecky argued against the $82,00 fine, saying the government’s request for such a dollar amount is an attempt to “silence” people who want to donate to a particular political cause and her client’s attorney fees.
Her report also spent a good portion complaining about Quaglin has been mistreated in jail awaiting trial, that he is “malnourished” from not being properly fed due to suffering from Celiac disease.
It also repeats claims that he was “coerced and pressured” into agreeing to the bench trial last summer, and two previous attorneys on his case misled Quaglin about the process.
Fulnecky made a motion last month to try to get Quaglin out of the agreement for the bench trial, and said in a brief interview with NJ Advance Media that Quaglin last summer was under duress from stress of being jailed and his wife filing for divorce.
“He was not ready for trial,” Fulnecky said.
One lawyer, Fulnecky claimed, told Quaglin that if he agreed to the trial, she’d get him home to “fix his family,” Fulnecky wrote in her motion.
McFadden, in a written ruling, quashed Fulnecky’s arguments, saying he cannot go back on a position he agreed to under oath in open court, “simply because his earlier position no longer benefits him.”
“Quaglin, knowingly and voluntarily, agreed to the stipulation of facts, signed it, and produced it to the Court. He agreed to be bound by its terms. But now he has buyer’s remorse and wants to have it set aside. This he cannot do. A defendant may not argue that he perjured himself just to walk back an agreement he regrets,’ McFadden wrote.
Before the judge’s decision, Akers, the prosecutor, wrote in a report that Quaglin, after his convictions, has been a guest on shows and podcasts in which he blames others for Jan. 6, or said it was a “set up,” and declared himself a political prisoner.
Moreover, Quaglin made similar claims in public about his trial, saying it occurred under duress, he pleaded “guilty to fourteen felonies that I didn’t commit [and] the DOJ can suck my [unintelligible].”
Before a sentencing date earlier this was postponed, Quaglin had warned, according to Akers, that he intended to “renege everything” at the hearing, and if he was not granted a new trial, he’d go “off the hinges.”
Thank you for relying on us to provide the local news you can trust. Please consider supporting NJ.com with a voluntary subscription.
Kevin Shea may be reached at kshea@njadvancemedia.com
