A Marathon man who admitted to assaulting police through the Jan. 6, 2021 U.S. Capitol riots and was sentenced to 45 months in jail for the felony was the featured speaker, along with his spouse, on the Southernmost Republican Membership assembly in Key West that began at 6 p.m. on Monday, Sept. 8 on the Key West Yacht Membership.
Bryan Bishop and his spouse, Tonya Bishop, who pleaded responsible to a misdemeanor offense and was sentenced to 2 years probation, have been each amongst greater than 1,500 rioters who have been pardoned on President Donald Trump’s first day in workplace in January 2025. Bryan Bishop had served 5 months of his 45-month sentence when the pardons have been issued.
Initially arrested in Marathon in August 2023, Bryan Bishop pleaded responsible in April 2024 to a felony cost of assaulting, resisting or impeding officers after video footage from the Jan. 6 riots captured him spraying a Metropolitan Police Division officer within the face with a chemical irritant earlier than coming into the Capitol.
“It is a massive one,” Trump stated on his first day again in workplace of the “full, full and unconditional” pardons that drew condemnation from Democratic lawmakers and even just a few Republicans.
“It’s a betrayal of the legislation enforcement that protected all of us that day and a harmful endorsement of political violence, telling criminals which you can beat cops inside an inch of their lives so long as it’s in service to Donald Trump,” Democratic Sen. Patty Murray stated of the blanket pardons in January.
Although Trump had for months promised to grant clemency to many Jan. 6 defendants, some nonetheless questioned previous to Inauguration Day whether or not the pardons would come with violent offenders and those that had assaulted legislation enforcement officers through the riots.
In a Jan. 12 interview with Fox Information, Vice President JD Vance stated that those that dedicated violence on Jan. 6 “clearly shouldn’t be pardoned,” inflicting backlash from right-wing supporters.
Bryan and Tanya Bishop, who’ve since returned to their liveboard boat in Boot Key Harbor off Marathon, have been the featured visitor audio system on the Southernmost Republican Membership assembly on Monday, Sept. 8 on the Key West Yacht Membership.
Press was not allowed on the assembly, which was solely open to registered Republicans, however the membership confronted backlash on native social media pages as phrase of its visitor audio system unfold.
Todd German, vice chairman of the Southernmost Republican Membership, advised the Keys Weekly that he was conscious of some opposition from native Democrat activists, however stated the Bishops had already spoken at conferences of the Higher Keys and Center Keys Republican Golf equipment with no points.
Talking with the Keys Weekly just a few hours earlier than the assembly, German stated, “They have been absolutely pardoned, and to me this is a chance to listen to a firsthand account, and listen to what they must say. There’s a purpose the president pardoned them, as a result of I believe it was a sophisticated matter that day. This isn’t an endorsement, simply listening. I need to deliver the Republican occasion of Monroe County collectively.”
German additionally emphasised that the assembly was not a Key West Yacht Membership-sponsored occasion.
“We simply lease the yacht membership for assembly house,” he stated. “This isn’t a yacht membership occasion.”
Native Democratic activist Marilyn Kellner stood on the sidewalk exterior the yacht membership on North Roosevelt Boulevard photographing individuals who arrived for the assembly.
“That is who the Southernmost Republican Membership is celebrating: Insurrectionists who assaulted law enforcement officials at our nation’s capital,” Kellner posted on Fb. “‘On Jan. 6, 2021, their speaker, Bryan Bishop, “sprayed a Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) officer instantly within the face with an orange-colored chemical irritant after which sprayed a second MPD officer by aiming the spray at an upward angle with a purpose to spray below the officer’s face protect,’ the U.S. Lawyer’s Workplace press launch acknowledged.”
In accordance with federal courtroom paperwork detailing the Bishops’ case, FBI investigators cross-referenced pictures of Bryan Bishop from his Florida, Minnesota and Idaho driver’s licenses and passport renewal utility with public video, CCTV and police physique digicam footage recorded through the Capitol riot. Collectively, the grievance states, the imagery recognized him as one of many people who assaulted members of the Metropolitan Police Division (MPD) on the Capitol’s West Terrace earlier than coming into and roaming the capitol constructing for roughly 17 minutes.
As well as, Bryan was allegedly recognized as a person labeled the #UnderHelmetSprayer in a needed poster launched by Sedition Hunters, a “international neighborhood of open-source intelligence investigators (OSINT) working collectively to help the U.S. FBI and Washington D.C. Capitol Police to find individuals who allegedly dedicated crimes within the January 6 capitol riots.”
His prison grievance particulars a number of digicam angles showing to point out him spraying two MPD officers within the face with a chemical irritant, hitting one instantly earlier than “purpose(ing) at an upward angle with a purpose to spray below (a second officer’s) face protect and instantly into his face.”
Capitol footage video hyperlink:
https://keysweekly.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/RPReplay_Final1691519711.mov