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Prosecutors say SC man played “key role” in Jan. 6 Capitol riot, seek 4 years in prison

Federal prosecutors say in a new court filing that Donald Trump supporter George Tenney III, of Anderson, played a “key role” in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol and are asking a judge to sentence him to four years in prison.

Tenney, 36, “forced open the rotunda doors for the first time, allowing approximately 48 rioters to enter – rioters who then fanned out throughout the Capitol, destroying property and assaulting police and threatening members of Congress, their staff and other persons lawfully inside the Capitol that day,” federal prosecutors said in a memo to the judge filed earlier this week.

Tenney, who in June pleaded guilty to civil disorder and obstructing an official proceeding, will be sentenced Monday in Washington, D.C. He faces up to 20 years in prison on the civil disorder charge and five years on the obstructing charge.

Also this week Tenney said in a court filing he now blames the former president and others for spreading lies and conspiracy theories that the 2020 election had been stolen by Democrats.

“Like most of the people protesting in the Capitol on Jan. 6, he (Tenney) believed in dangerous and false narratives, picked up through internet chats, podcasts and the words of high-level government officials, including the President of the United States,” Tenney’s lawyers said in a defense memo to Judge Thomas Hogan asking for leniency.

Tenney’s filing seeking leniency was unusual in that it also contains a personal letter from him clearly admitting he was duped and blaming Trump and like-minded others for spreading lies about a stolen election.

“I let one man’s rhetoric and lies bring me to a place that couldn’t be more far from reality,” Tenney wrote in his letter. “How do I tell my 9-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son... their dad messed up so gad that I wouldn’t be in their lives for sometime?”

Tenney’s admission made national news this week.

On Thursday morning, CNN ran a story with the chyron “Rioter seeking leniency: I let one man’s lies detach me from reality” and quoted Tenney’s letter: “I did get caught up in all the lies and made-up news going around, from politicians/celebrities in child sex rings, corruption allegations, supposed communism, to election fraud.”

Tenney’s filing said his participation in the Jan. 6 riot has resulted in the “complete dismantling” of his personal and business life.

“At the time, he had a good job working for Sysco, making a good salary with benefits and a retirement plan. His employment with Sysco started in 2018 and had come about after 17 years working as a chef for country clubs and restaurants in South Carolina, Arizona, Oregon and North Carolina,” the filing said.

Sysco fired him and “all of that is gone now as he tries to make ends meet as the owner, cook and operator at a small take-out restaurant in Anderson.”

Tenney’s memo also says his encounters with law enforcement on Jan. 6 were attempts to defuse the situation and he was not trying to hurt anyone. He is “profoundly remorseful” for his actions, the filing says.

Evidence against Tenney includes a video tape from Capitol police surveillance video taken on Jan. 6 around 2:25 pm — less than 10 minutes after the initial breach — shows Tenney opening doors to the rotunda, helping rioters enter the Capitol and then confronting two Capitol police officers and a member of the House Sergeant at Arms staff, according to court records filed this week.

Until Tenney opened the rotunda doors from the inside, rioters had been outside, pummeling officers with sticks, fists, flag poles, and tear gas, according to the prosecution memo. As Tenney was trying to open the doors, he fought off an officer who was trying to stop him, the prosecution’s memo says.

Prosecutors said Tenney “was the original instigator of one of the two largest breaches of the Capitol building that day. Because of Tenney, dozens of rioters entered the Capitol. Police were assaulted. Congress was threatened. Property was damaged. Democracy was put on hold.”

Right after the breach, Tenney was filmed rejoicing and saying, “We are inside the Capitol Building. It has been overrun. The Capitol building has literally been broken into. This is what a revolution ... looks like!” according to the prosecution memo.

Prosecutors also say Tenney continued to spread conspiracy theories and false information about the riot even after it happened. The falsehoods included that the rioters included a special undercover military unit working for Trump, that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had attempted a coup and that Trump had “declared an insurrection.”

Tenney also warned a contact to prepare for martial law and to stockpile survival supplies and said, “The election was stolen, everyone knows it in politics and military,” prosecutors said.

Nearly 900 people have been arrested in the Jan. 6 breach of the Capitol, in what officials have said is the largest criminal case ever brought by the Department of Justice in U.S. history. The FBI is searching for hundreds more who remain at large. More than 100 police were injured and rioters succeeded in forcing Congress to flee the Capitol, putting a temporary halt to a ceremonial counting of electoral votes that gave Joe Biden the presidency.

More than 60 court challenges were filed in swing states alleging voting fraud after the 2020 election, and all but one — an incident in Pennsylvania that would not have influenced the election outcome — were tossed out of court for lack of evidence.

Trump’s former attorney general, Bill Barr, admitted to an Associated Press reporter in December 2020 that a canvas of the states after the 2020 election found no significant election fraud anywhere in the country.