Douglas Hughes, who landed his gyrocopter on the U.S. Capitol lawn last year to protest the campaign finance system, was sentenced to 120 days in jail on Thursday.
Hughes pleaded guilty in November to the felony of operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate, NBC News reported. Hughes flew from Pennsylvania to Washington, D.C. through restricted airspace in his open-cockpit gyrocopter on April 15, 2015,
Hughes was also sentenced on Thursday to serve one year’s probation, when he will be barred from the U.S. Capitol and the White House.
The mail carrier from Florida rejected a plea deal last year that would have sentenced him to 10 months in jail. At the time, his attorney said zero to six months would be a more reasonable sentence. At the sentencing, Hughes’s attorneys praised him as a hero fighting corporate influence on politics.
“Heck, yes,” Hughes said, when asked if the protest was worth it. “I’ll never do this again. But yes, it was worth it. Four months? Yeah.”
[NBC News]
- How an Alleged Spy Balloon Derailed an Important U.S.-China Meeting
- Effective Altruism Has a Toxic Culture of Sexual Harassment and Abuse, Women Say
- Inside Bolsonaro's Surreal New Life as a Florida Man—and MAGA Darling
- 'Return to Office' Plans Spell Trouble for Working Moms
- 8 Ways to Read More Books—and Why You Should
- Why Aren't Movies Sexy Anymore?
- Column: Elon Musk Should Not Be in Charge of the Night Sky
- How Logan Paul's Crypto Empire Fell Apart
- 80 for Brady May Not Be a Masterpiece. But the World Needs More Movies Like This
