Alan Hostetter, seen right here in Could 2020, turned a number one activist towards coronavirus-related lockdown insurance policies in Orange County, Calif. Hostetter, a former police chief and yoga teacher, was convicted of conspiring to hinder congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election outcomes on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group by way of Getty Photographs
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Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group by way of Getty Photographs
Alan Hostetter, seen right here in Could 2020, turned a number one activist towards coronavirus-related lockdown insurance policies in Orange County, Calif. Hostetter, a former police chief and yoga teacher, was convicted of conspiring to hinder congress’ certification of the 2020 presidential election outcomes on the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group by way of Getty Photographs
A retired California police chief, who led pro-Trump protests and referred to as for ”traitors” in authorities to be ”executed for instance,” was sentenced to 135 months — simply over 11 years — in jail for his position within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
After representing himself at his trial earlier this yr, Alan Hostetter was convicted of conspiring to hinder Congress’ certification of Joe Biden’s electoral victory, bringing a hatchet onto Capitol grounds, and disorderly conduct. Whereas Hostetter joined the mob on the steps of the Capitol, he stopped in need of getting into the constructing and didn’t assault law enforcement officials through the riot.
”This defendant’s conduct was terrorism,” mentioned Assistant U.S. Lawyer Anthony Mariano, who argued that Hostetter’s prolonged profession in legislation enforcement meant he ought to have identified higher.
”By means of his phrases and deeds on Jan. 6, Alan Hostetter was a terrorist,” Mariano mentioned. ”Nothing he did was patriotic.”
Hostetter denied wrongdoing and gave a prolonged conspiratorial rant claiming that the Capitol riot was the results of a ”false flag” assault engineered by the federal authorities. ”I’ve full religion and confidence the reality will come out and when it does it is going to shock folks,” Hostetter informed the courtroom. He additionally praised Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy for saying at Wednesday’s GOP major debate that the Jan. 6 riot ”now does seem like it was an inside job.”
At one level in his remarks to the courtroom, Hostetter endorsed a baseless fringe concept that the deadly taking pictures of Ashli Babbitt, who was killed by a police officer whereas making an attempt to breach a locked door within the Capitol, was ”staged.”
”She wasn’t really killed that day,” Hostetter mentioned. That declare angered Babbitt’s mom, Micki Witthoeft, who attended the listening to. Witthoeft confronted Hostetter exterior the courtroom, calling him ”smug” and telling him ”you need assistance.”
The Division of Justice had requested Choose Royce Lamberth to condemn Hostetter to simply over 12 years in jail, arguing that his violent anti-government rhetoric, carrying of harmful weapons, and intensive planning merited a harsh punishment.
At Alan Hostetter’s trial, federal prosecutors launched a photograph of drugs they alleged Hostetter dropped at Washington, D.C. forward of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot on the U.S. Capitol.
U.S. Division of Justice
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U.S. Division of Justice
Many contributors within the Jan. 6, 2021, riot took uncommon paths to the storming of the Capitol, however few have been as singular as Hostetter’s.
Hostetter served within the U.S. Military within the Nineteen Eighties and deployed to Germany earlier than occurring to work for the Orange County Sheriff’s Division and in the end changing into police chief of La Habra, Calif. After he retired from that place on account of what he mentioned have been spinal issues, Hostetter settled within the small beachside group of San Clemente and have become a yoga teacher and sound healer. He posted movies of himself enjoying a gong in entrance of a sundown, and rhapsodizing in regards to the seek for interior peace.
After the COVID-19 pandemic hit in early 2020, Hostetter started main protests towards what he considered as tyrannical authorities overreach, and spoke when it comes to violent anti-government revolution. He based a nonprofit referred to as the American Phoenix Undertaking to help his protest efforts, and gained traction in Southern California’s right-wing political scene, standing out together with his signature trilby hat and goatee. Hostetter appeared at occasions with Republican politicians and partnered with the legislation agency of a distinguished Republican legal professional, Harmeet Dhillon, to problem California’s COVID-19 insurance policies in courtroom.
All through his case, Hostetter has appeared to endorse a variety of baseless conspiracy theories whereas arguing that he’s the goal of a longstanding authorities plot.
At instances, he has referenced the pro-Trump QAnon conspiracy alongside claims in regards to the September 11, 2001, terrorist assaults, the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, the firing of Tucker Carlson from Fox Information and the Freemasons.
After the 2020 election, Hostetter and his group turned their focus to rejecting Biden’s electoral victory.
”President Trump should be inaugurated on January twentieth, and he should be allowed to complete this historic job of cleansing out the corruption within the cesspool generally known as Washington, D.C.,” Hostetter mentioned in a speech in Huntington Seaside, Calif. in Dec. 2020. ”The enemies and traitors of America, each overseas and home, should be held accountable. And they’ll. There should be lengthy jail phrases, whereas execution is the simply punishment for the ringleaders of this coup.”
Prosecutors say that Hostetter then ”spent weeks rallying others, amassing weapons, and planning an assault on the U.S. Capitol on the day that the peaceable switch of energy was meant to happen.”
Key proof towards Hostetter got here from one in all his co-defendants, a California man named Russell Taylor. He helped plan protests with Hostetter, and joined Hostetter in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 whereas armed with a knife, physique armor and a stun baton. Taylor pleaded responsible to a cost of conspiracy to hinder an official continuing, cooperated with prosecutors and testified towards his former good friend.
Hostetter continued to dispute Taylor’s testimony at his sentencing listening to. In wrapping his remarks, he thanked Choose Lamberth for permitting him to talk at size about his case. ”You all the time have given me the chance to flap my gums,” Hostetter informed the courtroom.