A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former U.S. Capitol police officer for his role in attempting to help a Virginia fisherman evade criminal charges related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the obstruction charge against Michael Angelo Riley, a 25-year police veteran, stating that the evidence presented by the government strongly supported his conviction.
Riley had argued that the prosecution failed to demonstrate the foreseeability of a grand jury proceeding or that he deleted his Facebook messages with the intent to obstruct justice. However, the court dismissed these arguments, noting that Riley, being a seasoned Capitol Police officer, was well aware of the role of grand juries in the criminal process and his own messages indicated his expectation of felony prosecutions for those who unlawfully entered the Capitol.
In October 2022, Riley was found guilty of one count of obstruction of an official proceeding, while a second obstruction charge resulted in a hung jury. Subsequently, in April 2023, he was sentenced to two years of probation and four months of home detention by U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson.
Riley, who was on duty during the Capitol attack, had responded to a report of an explosive device at the Republican National Committee headquarters and assisted an injured officer. The day after the riot, he communicated with Jacob Hiles, a fisherman he knew from online videos, advising him to remove incriminating content from his social media posts to avoid potential charges.
Following Hiles' disclosure that the FBI was interested in their conversations, Riley deleted their private messages. Hiles later pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to the Capitol riot and received a two-year probation sentence. The court's decision underscores the accountability of law enforcement officers and individuals involved in obstructing justice in connection with the events of January 6, 2021.
