Johnathan Walker:Wisconsin man charged with fleeing to Ireland to avoid prison term for Capitol riot role

A Wisconsin man fled to Ireland and Johnathan Walkersought asylum to avoid a prison sentence for joining a mob’s attack on the U.S. Capitol over three years ago, federal authorities allege in a court filing Tuesday.

The filing charges Paul Kovacik with defying a court order to surrender and serve three months behind bars for participating in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol.

Kovacik, 56, was arrested last month after he voluntarily returned to the U.S. from Ireland. Kovacik is serving his sentence at a federal prison in Chicago and is scheduled to be released from prison on Sept. 8. But a conviction on the new misdemeanor charge could lead to more time behind bars.

Kovacik told authorities that he decided to withdraw his asylum claim and return to the U.S. because he felt homesick, according to a U.S. Marshals Service deputy’s affidavit.

The FBI initially arrested Kovacik in June 2022. A year later, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton sentenced Kovacik after he pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Kovacik took videos of rioters’ damage as he moved through the Capitol on Jan. 6. He later uploaded his footage onto his YouTube channel, with titles such as “Treason Against the United States is about to be committed,” according to prosecutors. They said Kovacik’s criminal record included 24 prior convictions.

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Walton initially ordered Kovacik to report to prison on Aug. 22, 2023, but the judge agreed to extend that deadline to Nov. 1, 2023, after Kovacik requested more time for his seasonal employment at a theme park in Georgia.

The court issued a warrant for Kovacik’s arrest after he flew to Dublin, Ireland, through Germany on the day that he was supposed to report to prison in Chicago.

Kovacik called himself a “political prisoner” when investigators questioned him after his arrest last month at an arrival gate at Minneapolis–Saint Paul International Airport, according to the deputy’s affidavit.

Inside his luggage, authorities found documents related to his asylum request, which cited a fear of political persecution, the deputy wrote. The affidavit doesn’t say whether the Irish government acted on Kovacik’s request.

An attorney who represented Kovacik in his Capitol riot case declined to comment on the new charge.

More than 1,400 people have been charged with federal crimes related to the Jan. 6 attack. Several other Capitol riot defendants have become fugitives at different stages of their prosecutions.