Michael Gerard Fournier is captured in this still from a video entering the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. Photo from court records
A Portland man who denied having done anything illegal while being at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, pleaded guilty Wednesday to misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and parading in a restricted area.
Michael Gerard Fournier, 46, was arrested in January on four misdemeanor charges, two of which prosecutors agreed to dismiss in a plea agreement Fournier signed on April 9.
Fournier faces up to six months in jail for each charge, which could be served consecutively. He has also agreed to pay $500 in restitution to the Architect of the U.S. Capitol, which maintains the Capitol grounds. Prosecutors estimate the riot caused more than $2.9 million in damage.
He will be sentenced on Aug. 1, according to court records, after prosecutors and his defense attorney submit sentencing requests to the federal judge overseeing his case.
Fournier wasn’t arrested until three years after the event. But authorities have known for years that he was among the hundreds of people who forced their way into the U.S. Capitol building in an effort to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election. Fournier admitted this through an attorney in December 2021, according to an FBI affidavit unsealed in January.
In pleading guilty Wednesday, Fournier agreed to the affidavit’s allegations.
Investigators first received a tip on Jan. 11, 2021 that Fournier was at the Capitol. That person knew Fournier and helped police identify him using images from countless videos and through surveillance camera footage and social media activity.
The affidavit includes 15 photos taken from security footage that prosecutors say show Fournier’s trip through the Capitol. Fournier could be seen entering the building shortly after 3 p.m., about 50 minutes after it was first breached, while wearing a red bucket hat.
On his way to the doors, police say Fournier passed a crowd of people climbing a police car. Then he climbed the Capitol Rotunda stairs, chanting “this is our House” with his fist raised.
Fournier spent about 10 minutes inside the building before he was forced out by police. Investigators say the videos show Fournier taking out his cellphone to record what was happening inside the rotunda, which was filled with rioters decked out in paramilitary and Donald Trump gear. At one point, he was seen holding a painting that another rioter handed him.
Before Fournier was charged on Jan. 23, his former attorney told police Fournier had no warning signs that he wasn’t supposed to be in the Capitol – but investigators say that should have been obvious from the police presence, the alarms and signs of destruction.
He is one of 10 people with Maine ties charged so far. Most of them have been convicted and sentenced.
Christopher Maurer was the only Mainer still waiting for a trial as of Wednesday. He was arrested in February 2023 and pleaded not guilty in May to felony and misdemeanor charges for allegedly assaulting an officer. His trial is scheduled for September.
Kyle Fitzsimons is the only Mainer who has gone to trial for his Jan. 6 charges. He was found guilty of 11 charges and sentenced to more than seven years in prison last June. The U.S. Supreme Court is currently weighing whether one of his charges, obstruction of an official proceeding, was properly applied to his and hundreds of others’ cases.
Matthew Brackley pleaded guilty to assaulting police in January and is scheduled to be sentenced May 14. Kimberly Sylvester pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct charges in March and is scheduled to be sentenced in June.
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