ATLANTA — The chairwoman of the Taylor County Republican Party has pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge related to her participation in the U.S. Capitol riot on Jan. 6, 2021.
Mandy Robinson-Hand, 46, and her husband, 35-year-old Charles Hand III, were arrested and charged with four misdemeanors in March, more than a year after surveillance footage recorded them walking through the Capitol amid hundreds of others in the pro-Trump crowd that breached the building that day.
Although an appeal placed on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo described the charges as a “political witch-hunt” and a stand against “evil ideologies,” the couple signed separate misdemeanor plea agreements last week, admitting that they illegally demonstrated inside the Capitol.
Robinson-Hand is listed on the Georgia Republican Party website as party chair in Taylor County, a small county between Macon and Columbus with just under 2,000 residents. She also was listed as a “county captain” for the campaign of U.S. Senate candidate Herschel Walker.
Neither Robinson-Hand nor the Georgia Republican Party responded to requests to comment for this story, but at the time of the Hands’ arrests, GOP state Executive Director Brandon Moye condemned “any violence that took place on January 6, 2021.” The Hands are not charged with a violent crime.
The couple are scheduled to be sentenced Jan. 13 in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C. where they face up to six months in prison. Many similarly charged Jan. 6 defendants who have pleaded guilty have received much lighter sentences, ranging from a few weeks in federal custody to probation. The exceptions have been for the relatively few defendants with prior convictions where federal sentencing guidelines are less forgiving.
In 2009, Robinson-Hand received a five-year sentence in Taylor County on a drug charge for opiates. She served four months behind bars, according to records from the Georgia Department of Corrections.
The FBI identified the Hands through anonymous tips as well as photos and video taken during the riot. Photos included in court documents show the couple walking through the Capitol holding hands, but a documentary video archived online shows them in the plaza by the West Terrace amid a crowd of rioters who were fighting with a line of Metro DC Police.
At one point in the video, Charles Hand appears to shout at Robinson-Hand, pulling her by the arm toward the crowd, then using his shoulder to push the mob as it tried to break the police line. Charles Hand posted about the episode at length on his Facebook page, claiming that violence was caused by “Antifa sporting Trump gear.” There’s no evidence antifa activists caused the violence on Jan. 6, although 272 demonstrators in the pro-Trump crowd have been charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding police during the riot.
So far, more than 880 people have been charged in the Capitol riot. Of the 22 defendants with Georgia ties, 15 have pleaded guilty on charges ranging from assault to misdemeanors. Most of the Georgia defendants whose cases have not settled by a plea agreement face felony charges.
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