A man and a woman from Quincy pleaded guilty Tuesday to charges stemming from the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Christina Gerding and Jason Gerding pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating and picketing inside the Capitol building. The two will be sentenced in May and could face up to six months in prison and fines of up to $5,000.
Christina and Jason Gerding were arrested in central Illinois just weeks after rioters breached the Capitol, according to court records.
Earlier that same month, a photo surfaced on social media of a man and a woman wearing “Trump 2020” attire in what appeared to be the Capitol Rotunda, along with the words “Quincy made it inside,” federal prosecutors said.
Someone in a Facebook chat replied, “hope they lock yours [sic] a— up,” records show. And someone with the username “Christna Gerding” replied, “well since they let us inside; opened the door for us I think I’ll be just fine.”
Christina Gerding, 46, and Jason Gerding, 50, were at least the fourth and fifth Illinoisans charged as a result of the riot at the Capitol. Their case appeared to be the first from Illinois to directly reference QAnon, described in an 11-page criminal complaint as “a loosely affiliated network and community of people who believe in a number of conspiracy theories. The letter ‘Q’ is utilized by its believers to identify themselves.”
Federal authorities suspect Jason Gerding used a Twitter account with the tagline of “We The People Have Woken,” according to the complaint. They said the profile photo was of Donald Trump, and the background photo featured a “Q.”
In December of 2020, the account tweeted about the upcoming events at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
The day after Christmas, someone used the account to write, “So much disinformation coming out I don’t know what is real what is fake. I trust the plan…. I’ll be in DC Jan 6th, but my head is starting to hurt.”
On Jan. 6, someone posted a photo on the Twitter account that allegedly depicted Jason and Christina Gerding in “Trump 2020” attire in the Capitol Rotunda, standing in front of the painting entitled the “Declaration of Independence” by John Trumbull.
The same day, a photo was also posted on a Facebook account with the username “Jason Gerding” of a bust of George Washington wearing a “Trump” hat.
