Cameron Edward Hess is seen in a photo assaulting police to get back into the U.S. Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021. (Photos from court documents)
A Pennsylvania man who bragged he was “brawling at the door” of the Capitol on Jan. 6 and later sent a message saying “Don’t tell anyone I was there,” was sentenced to prison time after the FBI was tipped off by two of his school buddies.
Cameron Edward Hess, 27, was sentenced to nine months in prison and 36 months of supervised release by U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth. Hess pleaded guilty in October to one count of obstruction of law enforcement during a civil disorder. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.
His defense attorney did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Law&Crime.
According to a statement of facts, Hess was among thousands attending Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally that day before pushing his way into the Capitol building at 3:24 p.m. as cops were trying to direct rioters out the doors. Six minutes later, he was pushed out the east rotunda doors.
He pushed an officer, who instructed him to “stop” multiple times, but Hess continued to physically engage the officer with his right arm while holding a door open with his left.
While there, authorities said Hess texted “people storming the Capitol” and he was “in the thick of it. Got pepper sprayed and teargassed” and about his assault on police in a message — “I was brawling at the door.”
Several days later, Hess sent another message saying, “Don’t tell anyone I was there.”
Authorities said two witnesses — school friends of Hess — tipped off the FBI that he got into the Capitol on Jan. 6. Someone also pointed him out on a link on social media to photos and videos showing him entering the building. Hess was also seen in a photo assaulting police to get back into the Capitol building. In one image, Hess shields his face from pepper spray bullets or wipes them to try to clear the pepper. He was inside the building for a total of seven minutes.
Hess turned himself in on March 1, 2023, after law enforcement called him.
In his sentencing memo, Hess unequivocally says he’s ready to “accept [what ever] judgment is pass[ed] on to him and imposed” but had asked to avoid prison.
He explained that he suffers from IPEX syndrome, a rare immune disease that puts him at risk of various other ailments and “grew up going in and out of hospitals.” He was home-schooled during much of his high school because of it.
A prison sentence, the memo said, would cause “havoc on the already delicate balance his health teeters on.”
In a sentencing memo, prosecutors had asked for Hess to spend a year behind bars.
Lamberth, a Ronald Reagan appointee, said that he would allow Hess to self-surrender to prison, according to a docket order.
In the 37 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 1,313 individuals have been charged in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol, including more than 469 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation remains ongoing, officials said.
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