The former owner of several Long Island funeral homes who sprayed police officers with insecticide and struck a photographer during the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the National Capitol pleaded guilty on Thursday to federal assault charges, prosecutors said.
The man, Peter G. Moloney, was among the first rioters to enter the area outside the Capitol after attending the “Stop the Steal” rally in support of President Donald J. Trump, prosecutors said. After arriving, Mr. Moloney aimed a spray can of Black Flag Wasp, Hornet & Yellow Jacket Killer at police officers’ hands, arms and heads, according to prosecutors.
Mr. Moloney, 60, pleaded guilty to one felony charge of assaulting, resisting and impeding police officers and one misdemeanor charge of assault by striking, prosecutors said.
He will pay restitution for damaging the Capitol grounds and for breaking the camera of someone whom he believed to be a journalist, prosecutors announced. Lawyers for Mr. Moloney declined to comment on their client’s plea.
Mr. Moloney traveled to the Capitol from his home in Bayport, N.Y., equipped with a bicycle helmet, safety goggles, hard-knuckle gloves and a face mask. In the federal complaint against Mr. Moloney, an F.B.I. agent said that Mr. Moloney put on his helmet and goggles as he arrived on the Capitol grounds, which the agent said showed that he was “prepared for violence.”
The complaint features nearly 30 images of Mr. Moloney near the Capitol, facing off with police officers in some and holding his cellphone aloft in others. In two of the photos, captured by police officers’ body-worn cameras, Mr. Moloney is actively spraying officers with the wasp spray.
Mr. Moloney also attacked two people who had cameras, striking one on the hand with his arm before pulling at the camera that the victim was holding. His actions caused the person to trip down a flight of stairs, prosecutors said.
The other person that Mr. Moloney attacked was John Minchillo, an Associated Press photographer who was violently assaulted by a group of men, including Mr. Moloney, who shoved and dragged Mr. Minchillo and pushed him over a wall. Two other members of the group were each sentenced to several years in prison.
Mr. Moloney was arrested last June in New York, roughly two years after he was identified in publicly available photos of the riot by members of the Sedition Hunters, a group of online investigators. At the time of the riot, Mr. Moloney was the co-owner of Moloney Family Funeral Homes, a Long Island chain with operations in Lake Ronkonkoma, Hauppauge, Bohemia and elsewhere. After his arrest, his brother took over the business, according to local news reports.
More than three and a half years after the riot at the Capitol, over 1,530 people have been charged with crimes, prosecutors said. Mr. Moloney and other supporters of Mr. Trump stormed the Capitol in a bid to prevent the certification of Joseph R. Biden Jr. as the winner of the 2020 presidential election.
Mr. Moloney will be sentenced on Feb. 11 by Judge Carl J. Nichols in Federal District Court in Washington, D.C.
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