Former Minot resident pleads guilty to 2nd charge for role in U.S. Capitol insurrection

Former Minot resident Glen Mitchell “Mitch” Simon told a federal judge Friday that he used a metal bicycle rack outside the U.S. Capitol to push police officers trying to hold back an unruly mob during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection.

Glen Mitchell “Mitch” Simon, a Minot native, posted this photo of himself on social media after leaving the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Image from social media

During the hearing in federal court in the nation’s capital, Simon pleaded guilty Friday to a second charge connected to his role in the attempt to block Congress from certifying the election of Democrat Joe Biden as president.

Simon, 30, admitted his guilt for disorderly and disruptive conduct at the Capitol, a charge that carries a potential penalty of a year behind bars and a $100,000 fine.

He already faces possible imprisonment for up to six months and a fine of up to $5,000 on a misdemeanor charge for demonstrating inside the Capitol, a charge he pleaded guilty to in January as part of a plea deal.

But prosecutors withdrew their agreement to the deal when new evidence emerged that Simon, a tree contractor in Georgia, played a larger role in the events at the Capitol than they had realized.

U.S. District Court Chief Judge Beryl Howell gave Simon time to think over his options.

On Friday, during a teleconference with the judge, Simon took a new deal that sentencing guidelines filed with the court say will likely result in prison time of eight to 14 months for Simon and a fine of between $4,000 and $40,000.

Simon, who was charged with federal crimes last May, is slated for sentencing Aug. 12.

During the conference on Friday, Howell read some of Simon’s outlandish comments during the insurrection already detailed in earlier filings with the court, including his insistence that the people surging into the Capitol were engaged in a revolution.

In a confession he signed, Simon admitted that he shot video inside the building and called police “little f***ing spineless f***ing oath-violating little spineless weasels” for trying to prevent the mob from storming the House and Senate chambers.

Supporting his fellow rioters who were trying to take control of the Capitol, Simon declared, “This is what a tyrannical government gets treated like. We bust in this bitch and show ’em who the f***ing boss really is.”

Simon attended Poland Regional High School before moving to Georgia and establishing a successful tree removal business. He has been active for several years in rallies and events connected to white supremacists.

Simon told the Sun Journal shortly after the insurrection that the Capitol never should have been closed to the public.

“That is the people’s place. We own that place,” Simon said. “We’re barred from our own building.”

“They want to say we breached it, but, well, it’s ours.”