Jan. 6 Rioter Pens Non-Apology Letter to Senator Whose Office He Invaded
CHOICE OF WORDS
A 23-year-old Trump supporter from Brooklyn caught on surveillance tape rifling through a senator’s office during last year’s riot at the Capitol offered a statement that, if you really squint at it, might resemble contrition. Francis Connor pleaded guilty to trespassing and disorderly conduct charges in April for his role in the catastrophe. In a note flagged Monday by a CBS News reporter, he said he was simply “in the wrong place at the wrong time.” “I entered the Capitol Building with zero harmful intent,” Connor said in the letter, addressed to Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-OR), “just curiosity as to what was going on around me.” He went on to say that he walked through an open door into an office, which he only “later found out” was Merkley’s. “Nothing was stolen or vandalized, I was just caught on a live feed looking through some books on your bookshelf,” Connor continued. “That video and my presence there that day in general is not the best way I’d like to be characterized.” At no point in his note did Connor actually apologize for illegally entering Merkley’s office, but he is requesting a sentence of a year’s probation and 70 hours of community service.