Edward Roman Badalian
Edward was born in Los Angeles, California, to Armenian immigrants on September 21st, 1995. Before his 1st birthday, his parents had divorced; by the time he was eight years of age, his father moved to Russia. He was raised by his mom and grandparents and had uncles who were great male role models. Edward left school in 11th grade and went to Russia to live with his father. After a year, he returned to the United States and attended college. He spent a semester at Pierce College before transferring to the electrical engineering program at DeVry. After his father quit funding his education, Edward was forced to drop out of school and work for his family.
In 2017, Edward returned to Pierce College and joined his girlfriend as part of Young Americans for Liberty (a libertarian organization made up of youth with strong patriotic values). During the shutdown due to COVID-19, Edward joined Save Our Children and Freedom Rallies to help ward off groups like Antifa. Due to his beliefs about the 2020 presidential election, Edward made plans to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally with President Trump on January 6th, 2021. He had no plan to become violent; in fact, he didn’t bring any defensive gear to the President’s speech or the Capitol Building. Edward only took the defensive gear to his Airbnb rental out of concern about attacks by Antifa members in the area. He was simply a patriot standing up for the American way of life and hoping to help protect himself and others from attacks from those in Antifa.
After President Trump’s speech, Edward went directly to the U.S. Capitol Building, where he crossed the west front and made his way to the Lower West Terrace. He watched as protestors attempted to get past police officers and then went up some scaffolding overlooking the West Terrace. Edward entered the building through a broken window. He was only inside the building for a few minutes before he was forced out by law enforcement. There is no evidence that he damaged or stole anything from inside the building. On the trip back to California, Edward and his traveling companions decided to delete photos and videos showing them at the Capitol. He also changed his phone and phone number after he left Washington D.C.
Edward Badalian was charged with conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding (felony statute before the Supreme Court…the DOJ uses this financial crime law because it is a felony and enables them to upgrade misdemeanors to maximize sentencing,) aiding and abetting, tampering with documents or proceedings, and a few misdemeanors. He was arrested on November 17th, 2021, in Los Angeles. He made his initial appearance in the Central District of California and was arraigned in Washington D.C. the following week. Edward entered a plea of not guilty to all charges and was granted pre-trial release until the case was resolved.
Edward’s bench trial began on February 28th, 2023, and concluded on April 4, 2023. Judge Amy Berman found him guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of an official proceeding, and entering and remaining in a restricted building. The prosecution team used the fact that Edward’s father lived in Russia to imply he had “foreign ties”, even though Edward and his father hadn’t talked in six years.
He was sentenced on September 26, 2023, to 51 months in prison and then three years of supervised release. He was also ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and fines.
If you would like to help with Edward’s legal expenses, you can do so here.
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