Originally Authored at TheFederalist.com
After being strung up on charges by President Joe Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ), a 71-year-old great-grandmother may be thrown in jail because she walked around the Capitol for a few minutes on Jan. 6, 2021.
Rebecca Lavrenz was convicted on four counts Thursday after just three days of jury deliberation for entering the Capitol on J6. Lavrenz entered the building through an open door around 2:43 p.m., according to the official statement of facts.
Lavrenz told The American Spectator‘s Jack Cashill that she “felt that if those doors [on the east side of the building] opened I was supposed to go through.”
Lavrenz exited the Capitol around 2:53 p.m., just 10 minutes after entering, having briefly spoken to at least one Capitol Police Officer before leaving, according to the statement of facts.
Two FBI agents showed up on April 19, 2021, to Lavrenz’s home in Colorado. Lavrenz told the agents she was in the middle of baking a cake for her son and asked if they could return at a different time, according to The American Spectator. The agents returned one week later for a “consensual interview,” according to the statement of facts.
After months of investigation, agents reportedly told Lavrenz she should be grateful the weaponized agency would only charge the self-described “praying great-grandmother” with four misdemeanor charges for entering a building her tax dollars pay for.
“Glad?” Lavrenz reportedly said. “I shouldn’t be charged with anything.”
Lavrenz was charged with entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct and disruptive conduct in a restricted building or grounds; disorderly conduct in a capitol; and parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a capitol, according to the criminal complaint.
According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, Lavrenz could face up to a year in prison and fines of over $200,000, not including legal fees.
[READ: J6 Committee Admits Its Show Trials Were An Election-Year Publicity Stunt]
“My country is treating me like a criminal because I believe that they stole my rightful president,” Lavrenz said in an emotional video posted to social media. “And just standing up for my country makes me a criminal and it’s not right, it feels so weird to be here.”
Stewart Parks, who was sentenced to eight months in prison after being convicted of the same charges as Lavrenz along with theft of government property after he picked up a metal detector wand and walked around with it for a period of time, said on “The Vicki McKenna Show” that the Biden administration is trying to send a message that the so-called wrong kind of political protests won’t be tolerated.
“If you think about it, my house was raided and I was arrested on June 2, 2021, so I’ve been on a form of probation since that day,” Parks said. “I could have had four or five years if they had done it consecutively. These punishments are just way too harsh for a crime that wasn’t committed.”
The left has tried to portray Jan. 6 as a “violent insurrection” despite video footage and witness testimony contradicting the narrative. Tapes from the Capitol on Jan. 6 released by Speaker Mike Johnson after being withheld by former Speaker Nancy Pelosi show dozens of peaceful demonstrators walking through the Capitol as officers escort them or stand by, seemingly unconcerned.
Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist.