politics

A self-styled dating coach and influencer from South Jersey blamed his pursuit of social media fame for the role he played in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol as he was sentenced to four years in federal prison Friday.

Patrick Stedman, 35, of Haddonfield, apologized for his actions that day, his livestream videos of the assault — in which he referred to members of Congress as “f— rats” and accused them of committing treason — as efforts to “look brave on Twitter.”

“Unfortunately, social media tends to reward obnoxious behavior,” he wrote in a letter to the judge. “I was a fool, and like all fools I have suffered the consequences of my myopia.”

But as she weighed Stedman’s fate, U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell expressed even greater concern that his social media following has only grown in the years since he was charged in connection with the riot.

Stedman, a University of Pennsylvania graduate who bills himself online as a “sex and relationship strategist” and expert in “female psychology,” had roughly 26,000 followers when he joined the mob of angry supporters of former President Donald Trump two years ago.

His follower count on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, has nearly doubled since then and he’s raised more than $100,000 through an online crowdfunding campaign to pay for his legal defense.

“Basically, they’re making money from their attack on the Capitol,” Howell said, referencing the fundraising efforts by Stedman and others. “It’s unseemly.”

Stedman’s sentence came three months after a federal jury found him guilty on one felony count of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress as well as related misdemeanors. He is among 23 New Jersey residents convicted of playing a role in the riot, which injured scores of officers, caused millions in damage and threatened the peaceful transfer of presidential power.

Prosecutors alleged Stedman spent more than 45 minutes inside the Capitol building — shouting at police, snapping selfies and documenting much of it for the thousands who followed his social media accounts.

In the days before, Stedman had urged them to join him in Washington on Jan. 6.

“Will eventually be a national holiday akin to the 4th of July,” he wrote in a post on Twitter. “You will want to tell your grandchildren you were there.”

Later, he tweeted: “This is the Second American Revolution.”

His efforts to drum up interest drew at least 11 of Stedman’s online followers to Washington that day, Assistant U.S. Attorney Brian Morgan said. Two of them joined Stedman — wearing a gaudy Christmas sweater emblazoned with Trump’s face and the slogan “Make X-mas Great Again” — in the mob that assaulted the Capitol building.

“Storming the Capitol! … It’s our f— house!” he shouted in one video as they approached from the West Lawn. He later claimed in a text that he was among the “first wave” of rioters who “broke down the doors.”

Stedman tweeted videos of himself sitting in then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s office, as outside rioters brawled with police, tear gas wafted through the marbled hallways and terrified members of Congress were evacuated from the House floor.

He later joined a mob that attempted to break down the door to the House chamber — an act of aggression that led Capitol police to shoot one member of the mob, Ashli Babbitt.

When Stedman learned of Babbitt’s death, he recorded video of himself confronting police, shouting: “You’re going to shoot your own people, you ... f— scum! You killed one of us. You’re done.”

And once police finally forced him out of the building, he paused on the Capitol steps to film himself once again. He boasted that he’d forced the “rats [to] scurry under the tunnels” in fear.

“Stedman … was part of a massive riot that almost succeeded in preventing the certification vote from being carried out, frustrating the peaceful transition of presidential power and throwing the United States into a Constitutional crisis,” Morgan wrote in court filings in advance of sentencing.

For his part, Stedman said nothing as prosecutors read out his litany of offenses, sitting stone-faced next to his attorney, Rocco C. Cipparone Jr., and opting not to address the judge in court but only in the letter he’d submitted in advance.

At trial, he’d maintained he was merely exercising his right to peacefully protest and said when he called on Twitter for “revolution,” he meant a political uprising akin to the civil rights movement of the 1960s.

Howell, on Friday, called that comparison “offensive” and questioned Stedman’s continued social media popularity.

He amassed his moderately sizable online following by casting himself as a pickup artist and trafficking in a steady mix of misogyny, COVID denialism and QAnon conspiracy theories.

His daily “sex and female psychology” newsletter promises to answer once and for all what women “really want from men” and offers relationship coaching classes that promised to unlock the mysteries of “well-executed online dating exchanges” at $500 a session — a business that’s proven surprisingly lucrative, bringing in more than $17,000 a month, according to Cipparone.

And Stedman’s post-Jan. 6 online fundraising pitch on the Christian crowdfunding site GiveSendGo — in which he claimed his prosecution was “an attack on Biden’s political opponents,” blamed bitter former classmates for turning him in, and bemoaned the fact that he and his father were kicked out of their wine club after his arrest — has drawn more than $100,000 in donations, the lawyer said.

Howell appeared baffled by that clout as she announced his sentence Friday. In addition to the prison term, she ordered Stedman to pay $22,000 in fines and restitution and serve three years’ probation upon his release from prison.

“It is one of the ironies of these Jan. 6 cases that people get more popular,” she said. “I can only hope that you use that platform not to sow more disinformation and division in this country. I can only urge you to puncture that disinformation.”

Within an hour of that remark, Stedman was back on X, soliciting more donations.