A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former U.S. Capitol police officer for his role in attempting to help a Virginia fisherman evade criminal charges related to the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol building. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia affirmed the obstruction charge against Michael Angelo Riley, a 25-year police veteran, stating that the evidence presented by the government strongly supported his conviction.
Riley had argued that the prosecution failed to demonstrate the foreseeability of a grand jury proceeding or that he deleted his Facebook messages with the intent to obstruct justice. However, the court dismissed these arguments, noting that Riley, being a seasoned Capitol Police officer, was well aware of the role of grand juries in the criminal process and his own messages indicated his expectation of felony prosecutions for those who unlawfully entered the Capitol.
