A Trump supporter from Ross, Pennsylvania, who lost her nursing job and her marriage to a Shaler police officer after she stormed the Capitol is asking for probation instead of the short jail term that prosecutors want.
Jennifer Heinl, 44, will be sentenced next week in the District of Columbia for demonstrating in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor, when she stormed the building in support of former President Donald Trump's false election fraud claims.
She pleaded guilty in November.
Federal prosecutors are asking for two weeks in jail and three years of probation, saying Heinl witnessed rioters fighting with police outside the Capitol but still went in, stayed inside for 47 minutes while filming what was happening, lied to an FBI agent who called her, and showed no remorse in a second interview with the FBI after her plea.
Her lawyer, Martin Dietz, is requesting probation, arguing that his client is "extremely remorseful, embarrassed and ashamed" for participating in what he called an "unjustifiable attack on America."
Heinl stormed the Capitol with Kenneth Grayson, of Bridgeville, Pennsylvania, whose case is pending, but Mr. Dietz said she did not do anything violent or yell encouragement to other rioters, as many others did. Instead, he said, she walked around for about 45 minutes and left.
Mr. Dietz asked the judge, Emmet Sullivan, to consider her personal circumstances. She's never even gotten a traffic ticket before, he said, and takes care of her two sons, both of whom have health issues.
What's more, Mr. Dietz said, she's already suffered for her actions. Her marriage to a Shaler cop, Michael Heinl, fell apart because of her crime. He had asked her not to go to the Trump rally, where the ex-president falsely claimed the election was stolen, but she went anyway. The two are finalizing a divorce.
She also lost her job as a nurse at the Pittsburgh VA.
Mr. Dietz also took issue with the prosecution's assertions that she lied to the FBI and hasn't shown remorse.
The FBI reviewed security footage from the Capitol Rotunda and saw a woman wearing a long-sleeved red jersey with "Trump 2020" on the back and a black hat with lettering on the front. Video showed her in the rotunda and inside the Capitol Crypt and elsewhere.
Agents identified her as Heinl through her association with Mr. Grayson, who is seen on videos talking to Heinl inside the rotunda and at one point lifting her up and hugging her.
A review of Mr. Grayson's Facebook page revealed that he and Heinl had been talking on Facebook Messenger about traveling to Washington and renting cars and hotel rooms.
An agent called her a few weeks after the riot to ask questions about her and Mr. Grayson.
Heinl lied, especially in regard to Mr. Grayson's involvement. But Mr. Dietz said she lied because she didn't think the caller was really an agent. She said she didn't recognize the agent's name, despite the fact that her husband is a detective, and she said she also assumed that her husband would have been involved in some way with an attempt to interview her. She thought that someone was posing as an agent to find out if she was cooperating against Mr. Grayson, Mr. Dietz said.
Mr. Dietz also said that in his experience, the FBI doesn't initiate investigations by directly calling the target of an investigation.
Heinl said she later talked to her husband, who told her the caller was indeed a real agent. After that, Mr. Dietz said, she cooperated and ultimately pleaded guilty.
Mr. Dietz said he had worked out a plea with Heinl and the government with the understanding that the U.S. attorney would not seek jail.
But now prosecutors want some incarceration because during her post-guilty plea interview, she said the chaos of the rioting outside the Capitol building was such that the safest thing to do was to go inside with the mob. She also repeated her assertion that the doors weren't blocked by police. In addition, prosecutors noted that she filmed the events and was photographed high-fiving another rioter and smiling after gaining entry.
Mr. Dietz argued that while all of that is true, it shows her state of mind at the time, not a lack of remorse now.
"Ms. Heinl made a very serious and ill-advised error in judgment when she entered the U.S. Capitol along with hundreds of other persons," he said. "She is not, however, a bad person."
Assistant U.S. Attorney Maria Fedor said Heinl should get 14 days in jail, probation and pay $500 in restitution.
She said Heinl initially told the FBI that she went to Washington alone, that she and Mr. Grayson didn't stay at the same hotel, and that she didn't go inside the Capitol with him. Heinl also said she hadn't talked to Mr. Grayson after the riot, but Facebook records showed she did, up until Jan. 11.
In her post-plea interview, Ms. Fedor said, Heinl repeated her claims that police didn't block her entry to the Capitol and that she went inside for "safety and warmth."
Ms. Fedor said it "defies belief that someone seeking safety would head toward the forefront of a riotous mob breaching the Capitol and take a souvenir photograph along the way."
Ms. Fedor said common sense would indicate that even if police weren't immediately present to stop her from entering the building, the fact that rioters were violently clashing with police and smashing windows all around her made it obvious that she was breaking the law.
"Even after pleading guilty in this case and admitting that she knew at the time she entered the Capitol that she did not have permission to go inside," Ms. Fedor said, "Heinl continues to rationalize that police officers did not stand in the way of her entry, highlighting her lack of sincere remorse or contrition."
