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Left: Christopher Spencer in footage from inside the Capitol provided in exhibit by the Department of Justice. Right: Christopher Spencer’s wife, Virginia Spencer, in footage from inside the Capitol on Jan. 6.
After waiving his right to a jury trial and pleading not guilty, a North Carolina man who breached the Capitol on Jan. 6 with his wife and 14-year-old son was convicted of five charges, including obstructing Congress from certifying the 2020 election.
The conviction was part of Spencer’s stipulated trial before U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly. He retains the right to appeal her decision.
Christopher Spencer of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, and his wife, Virginia Spencer, also known as Jenny Spencer, arrived in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 6 after meeting a caravan headed to the nation’s capital that had been organized by “Dr. ENoCH,” a man from Michigan and pro-Donald Trump social media personality then popular on Twitter, now X, according to a statement of facts.
As Law&Crime previously reported, Jenny Spencer ended up bringing the couple’s 14-year-old son inside of the Capitol after they marched down Pennsylvania Avenue following Donald Trump’s speech at the Ellipse.
The couple initially told investigators that when Trump said “we’re going to march to the Capitol,” during his speech, they turned to each other and agreed to start walking. As they made their way however, they saw officers arresting a man by scaffolding as tear gas and percussive grenades were lobbed into an already oversized, unruly crowd.
They were “way out to the side of that crowd,” they told the FBI.
Jenny Spencer told authorities she couldn’t get away once the crowd “started pushing” because she feared being trampled. Nonetheless, they got inside. That’s where Christopher Spencer, according to prosecutors, managed to get into the crypt with his family to join a mass of other rioters.
Video footage reviewed by prosecutors from the Capitol showed the man celebrating and yelling out, “Wooh! We in this motherf—–” and “Bro, they stormed the Capitol, bro… pushed the cops out of the way, everything… took it over.”
“Who would’ve knew the first time I ever come would be to storm,” he could be heard saying later as he moved through the Capitol’s resplendent Statuary Hall, according to court records.
He also joined chants to “stop the steal” and then later, screamed taunts at police officers he deemed “f—— traitors.”
Prosecutors said the Spencers didn’t turn back after being in the crypt, but went deeper into the building and eventually got to the wing where then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s office was located.
“Where’s Nancy’s office?” Christopher Spencer shouted as he moved through the hallway.
At his stipulated trial, he agreed that the allegations were true beyond a reasonable doubt. He agreed that he spent over 30 minutes in the Capitol to obstruct proceedings with his family in tow and he knew while he was there he did not have permission to be.
A sentencing date has not yet been set by the judge.
Jenny Spencer was sentenced to 90 days in prison plus three years of probation in January 2022 after pleading guilty the previous September to one count of parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol building. She was also charged with disorderly conduct and entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds.
When Kollar-Kotelly sentenced her, she told her it must have been a “traumatic” experience for her son to watch the violence at the Capitol and it was beyond comprehension to understand why they brought him.
“My question, which I still have, is whether she’s accepted responsibility as to the significance of what she participated in,” Kollar-Kotelly said. “It was an insurrection, not just a protest … the goal [was] to stop the certification of the presidential election and the peaceful transition of power as guaranteed by the Constitution.”
