A Trump-loving ex-cop from Queens faces up to five years in the clink after being convicted of her role in the Jan. 6, 2021 insurrection on the U.S. Capitol, federal prosecutors announced Friday.
Sara Carpenter, 53, of Richmond Hill was found guilty on March 9 in a Washington, DC federal court on felony charges of civil disorder and obstruction of an official proceeding, and five other misdemeanor counts.
Carpenter’s conviction comes nearly two years after her arrest, on March 23, 2021. The former NYPD officer, who retired from New York’s Finest in 2004, was among a host of New Yorkers prosecuted for their participation in the insurrection that sought to violently overturn the results of the 2020 presidential campaign.
According to prosecutors, Carpenter was a Trump supporter who told a relative that she had gone to the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 to protest the election results. The insurrection occurred following a rally that then-President Donald Trump held near the White House, during which he spouted numerous lies about the election being stolen from him.
Following Trump’s speech, an angry mob of his supporters, militia members and white supremacists marched down to the Capitol and besieged it as the House and Senate met jointly to certify the election results.
Despite an ongoing, public gaslighting campaign that claims the insurrection was more of a “peaceful protest,” the attack was anything but; mob members assaulted scores of U.S. Capitol police officers as they stormed the building — sending House and Senate members, including the vice president, running into lockdown for their lives.
Prosecutors said Carpenter had breached the Capitol, and was captured on security camera inside the Rotunda and elsewhere. She was spotted confronting a line of Capitol police officers guarding the Senate chamber, shaking a tambourine and screaming “I’m a f—ing animal!” at them, before pushing against the law enforcement agents.
Federal agents also said Carpenter slapped the arms of officers as they tried to prevent her from intruding other areas of the Capitol, and that she resisted verbal orders to leave.
Finally, after about 34 minutes inside the Capitol and being impacted by chemical irritants sprayed during the incident, Carpenter left the Capitol building. In a video, she acknowledged that the breach had been made, and that “it needs to calm down now.” She then demanded that Congress “come out” and “certify Trump as president,” despite the fact that he lost the election.
The day after the Jan. 6 putsch, which shocked and horrified the nation, the FBI received an anonymous tip about Carpenter taking part in the insurrection. Carpenter had also called a relative after the attack, saying that she decided to return home after getting teargassed.
The FBI later interviewed Carpenter, who admitted to being at the Capitol during the insurrection and voluntarily provided them with video footage that she captured. Agents also recovered the tambourine she brought with her to the Capitol, as well as map of downtown Washington, DC in her coat pocket.
Carpenter is scheduled to be sentenced on July 14. She is one of more than a thousand people charged in the last 26 months for crimes connected to the Capitol insurrection.
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