Record at a Glance
- Category
- Jan 6th
- Age in NPR record
- 23
- Location
- Dawsonville, Georgia
- Charges
- Entering and Remaining in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Disorderly and Disruptive Conduct in a Restricted Building or Grounds; Entering and Remaining in Certain Rooms in the Capitol Building; Disorderly Conduct in a Capitol Building; Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building
- Case status
- Pleaded guilty; Dismissed in part or full; Sentenced
- Presidential action
- Pardon
Case Summary
When FBI agents interviewed Benjamin Torre at his home in Georgia more than two weeks after the insurrection, he allegedly admitted he was inside the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. He said he drove to Washington, D.C., with his family two days earlier and went to the Trump rally not as part of any particular group but because he was a “patriot.” Torre allegedly told the FBI that he saw people break the window on the door of the Capitol with a cane, and then someone reached through the broken window to open the door. Torre said he climbed through a window to get into the Capitol and just walked around and went into a couple of offices. In one of the videos taken of Torre from one of the Senate offices, the person recording Torre is allegedly heard saying, according to court documents, “This is insane.” Torre replied, “This is f***ing wild man.” Then, according to the documents, he turned to the camera and continued, “This is crazy. I’ve never seen anything like this before in my life. Goddang, dude. I’ve been here so many times in my life, but never like this. Never like this.”
Case History
Torre pleaded Guilty to one charge: Parading, Demonstrating, or Picketing in a Capitol Building. The other charges are dismissed. Sentenced 7/7/2022 to 12 months of probation, including two months of home detention; 60 hours of community service; $1,113 fine; $500 restitution; $10 special assessment. Torre received a full pardon on January 20, 2025
Sources
- Primary Documentation
NPR Jan. 6 Defendant DatabaseNPR - Primary Documentation
Underlying court recordCourt record linked by NPR
Case summary, charges, procedural updates and image are drawn from the NPR Jan. 6 archive snapshot dated 2026-09-25 unless otherwise indicated.