WASHINGTON (AP) — A Tennessee bartender who carried plastic zip tie handcuffs and a stun gun into the Senate gallery on Jan. 6, 2021, where he was captured in one the most widely shared photos of the U.S. Capitol riot, was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison.
Eric Munchel, 32, was convicted of conspiracy and other charges alongside his mother, Lisa Eisenhart, 59, who was also sentenced on Friday to two-and-a-half years in prison.
The photo that went viral after the riot shows Munchel, who was dressed like a member of a SWAT team, jumping over a railing in the Senate gallery with a handful of zip-tie handcuffs in his hand. Lawmakers preparing to certify President Joe Biden’s 2020 electoral victory had fled the Senate floor only minutes before rioters invaded the chamber.
“A photojournalist captured the moment in what has become an iconic picture from January 6, visually capturing the danger of the riot, to democracy in general and to our elected representatives in particular,” prosecutors wrote in a court filing. “Due to this photograph, Munchel is widely known on social media as ‘Zip Tie Guy.'”
Prosecutors added that “it is terrifying to contemplate what Munchel and Eisenhart would have done if members of Congress had still been present in the Senate Chamber when they entered it.”
U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth, who sentenced the pair, decided their case without a jury after a “stipulated bench trial.” That means the judge based his rulings on facts that both sides agreed to before the trial started. The proceeding allows defendants to preserve appeal rights that they would have to waive if they pleaded guilty.
Munchel’s prison term — four years and nine months behind bars — matched the sentence recommended by prosecutors. They also had recommended prison sentence of…
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