A North Carolina man who helped lead the first attack on police at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was sentenced to prison in a Washington, D.C., courtroom, prosecutors said Friday.
James Tate Grant, a 31-year-old Cary resident, and three other men who also were sentenced on Thursday led the first breach of the restricted Capitol grounds and the initial attack on U.S. Capitol Police officers, according to FBI criminal complaints against the men.
A fifth man found guilty in February in connection with the initial breach, 40-year-old Ryan Samsel of Bristol, Pennsylvania, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 4, 2025, according to court documents.
“Their attack paved the way for thousands of rioters to storm the Capitol grounds,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Washington, D.C., said in a news release.
Grant and others sentenced Thursday hit an officer with a metal crowd control barrier, according to an FBI criminal complaint against Grant.
The other men sentenced were Stephen Chase Randolph, 34, of Harrodsburg, Kentucky; Jason Benjamin Blythe, 28, of Fort Worth, Texas; and Paul Russell Johnson, 38, of Lanexa, Virginia.
In a bench trial in February, U.S. District Judge Jia Cobb in Washington, D.C., found Grant guilty of civil disorder, assaulting an officer with a deadly or dangerous weapon and obstruction of an official proceeding — all felonies.
Cobb also found Grant guilty of committing an act of physical violence on the Capitol grounds and disorderly and disruptive conduct on the Capitol grounds, both misdemeanors.
Court records show he previously pleaded guilty to entering and remaining in certain rooms in the Capitol building, and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, also misdemeanors.
‘Waived [sic.] the crowd forward’
On Jan. 6, Grant followed closely behind Samsel, according to court documents.
Grant wore a baseball cap with an insignia of a map of his home state and the words, “Drink Local,” The Charlotte Observer previously reported.
Samsel breached the first barricade onto restricted grounds and neared the Capitol via the Pennsylvania Walkway. That was the first breach of the restricted perimeter, the FBI said in the criminal complaints.
Just behind Samsel, Grant “waived [sic.] the crowd forward” onto the restricted grounds, according to the FBI.
Samsel and Grant pushed and pulled on a second barricade as officers held it in place, the criminal complaint against Grant says. Grant, Samsel and other men lifted the metal bike rack barricade off the ground and shoved it into a line of USCP officers, according to the document.
‘Stormed the halls’ of Capitol building
The barricade hit an officer in the face with such force that it hurled the officer backward, slamming the officer’s head against a metal handrail and then stairs.
“The officer lost consciousness and suffered a concussion,” an FBI agent says in the complaint against Grant. “Another officer was driven several feet backward by the metal bike rack barricade until the back of their body ran into the stairwell and handrail behind them.”
Randolph jumped over the barricade and grabbed an officer, the agent said. Grant and Blythe “joined in the assault and attempted to pull Randolph and the officer toward a group of rioters,“ according to the complaint.
Other police forced Grant, Randolph and Blythe to release the officer and back away, the FBI agent wrote.
“By this point, the barricades were down, and the officers outmanned,” the complaint says. Rioters “quickly overwhelmed the police line, and the Capitol Police officers retreated backward toward the Capitol building.”
Grant then joined the crowd entering the Capitol building, and “each of the five men continued to fuel the riot,” according to the U.S. Attorney’s office news release.
Grant climbed through a broken window beside the Senate Wing door and into the Capitol building about 2:50 p.m. “He then stormed the halls with other rioters and was recorded with others” in the office of U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Oregon, the FBI said.
While on pre-trial release in December 2021, Grant was charged with driving while impaired after an encounter with Garner police in a restaurant parking lot, the Observer reported at the time.
Police said they found an AR-15 rifle and 60 rounds of .233-caliber ammunition in Grant’s car. When officers tried to arrest him, Grant tried to flee, court records show.
“He then dropped to the ground and stated something to the effect of ‘Just kill me now,’’’ federal prosecutors said in a court filing.
The outcome of the local case wasn’t available Saturday.
