JACKSON COUNTY, Ga. — An Athens area man will spend eight months in federal prison and then have a year of supervised release under a guilty plea agreement in his Jan. 6 case.
Mitch Simon was originally arrested in Gainesville in May 2021.
He has pleaded guilty to one of four counts he was originally charged with in relation to the insurrectionist riots at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021 - disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds.
Three other counts, include "violent entry and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds" have been dismissed as part of the plea agreement.
Simon is also being ordered to pay a $1,000 fine and $500 in restitution for damage at the Capitol.
Federal prosecutors originally alleged that Simon at first admitted to being outside the Capitol on Jan. 6, but denied entering the building at any point. Agents however identified him in surveillance footage walking through Statuary Hall and the Rotunda.
Agents were first tipped off to Simon by people who said they had seen him posting on Facebook about being at the Capitol on Jan. 6.
"Feel like I took about 50 bong rips of pepper spray today. Post-victory picture after ramming through of the Capitol building," Simon wrote in one Facebook post pictured in the FBI document. It included the hashtags "#congressranawayscared" and "#theythoughtwewouldnt."
Simon is one of more than two dozen people from or with ties to Georgia who were arrested for their involvement in the Jan. 6 riots. He joins a handful who have pleaded guilty and been sentenced, with those so far ranging in seriousness from probation to more than two years in prison.