Appeals court upholds conviction of former Capitol police officer who tried to help rioter

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a former U.S. Capitol police officer who tried to help a Virginia fisherman avoid criminal charges for joining a mob’s attack on the building that his law-enforcement colleagues defended on Jan. 6, 2021. A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled on Friday that the government’s evidence against Michael Angelo Riley adequately supports his conviction on an obstruction charge. The judges rejected Riley’s argument that prosecutors failed to prove a grand jury proceeding was foreseeable or that he deleted his Facebook messages to affect one.