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Matthew Valentin, 31, and Andrew Valentin, 26, both of Stroudsburg, were charged with assaulting officers during the push-up Capitol Hill to get into the U.S. Capitol Building and disrupt the count of electoral votes related to the 2020 presidential election, according to the District of Columbia US Attorney's Office.
Both brothers switched their "not guilty" pleas to "guilty" on Thursday, Sept. 26 ahead of the original trial date which was set for Monday, Oct. 7, 2024, according to federal court documents obtained by Daily Voice. It appears a deal was reached as multiple charges were dropped on Friday, Sept. 6.
Matthew Valentin pleaded guilty to two felony Counts of Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers.
Andrew Valentin pleaded guilty to one felony count of Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers and one felony count of Assaulting, Resisting, or Impeding Certain Officers with a Deadly or Dangerous Weapon.
The brothers are scheduled for sentencing on Jan. 17, 2025.
The Valentins were identified in an open-source video on Jan. 6, 2021, making their way from the Washington Monument toward the Capitol Building, authorities said. Eventually, they made their way to the West Plaza and climbed a media tower in the area.
They climbed down from the tower to join a large crowd amassing in the West Plaza where the US Capitol Police had formed a protective line behind bike rack barricades, according to the US Attorney's Office. The Valentins helped the crowd rush the police line and pushed a metal barricade into a line of Capitol Police officers, at 2;26 p.m.
The officers fell back and formed a new line on the south side of the plaza where Matthew Valentin approached and sprayed a chemical irritant toward them, authorities said. From there, the Valentins moved to the Upper West Terrace to help another crowd in breaching a different protective line. The crowd rushed the line and Matthew Valentin attempted to grab a police baton out of an officer's grasp at 3:30 p.m.
Things escalated and Andrew Valentin threw a folding chair at another protective line of police officers set up in front of a set of stairs leading from the West Plaza to the Upper West Terrace at 5:12 p.m., the US Attorney's Office said. The chair struck one officer's shield.
The FBI arrested the brothers on Sunday, Feb. 11, and Monday, Feb. 12, 2024, in Pennsylvania, according to authorities.
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