Florida Men Plead Guilty to Felony Charges in Connection with Jan. 6 Capitol Breach
WASHINGTON – Two Florida residents and members of the Proud Boys organization have admitted to felony charges for their involvement in the January 6, 2021, breach of the U.S. Capitol. The incident disrupted a joint session of Congress tasked with certifying the electoral votes from the 2020 presidential election.
Tom Vournas, 63, from Bradenton, Florida, pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting, or impeding certain officers using a dangerous weapon and causing bodily harm. Leonard Lobianco, 53, from North Port, Florida, pleaded guilty on September 23, 2024, to a felony charge of civil disorder.
U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth is scheduled to sentence Vournas on January 17, 2025, and Lobianco on January 28, 2025.
According to court documents, Vournas and Lobianco are members of a local Proud Boys chapter in southwest Florida known as “Zone 5.” They traveled with other chapter members from Florida to Washington, D.C., to participate in the January 6 events.
On the morning of January 6, Vournas and Lobianco joined approximately one hundred Proud Boys members near the Washington Monument around 10:00 a.m. The group then marched towards the Capitol, led by their leaders who announced their intentions through a megaphone. They claimed that the police and government had failed them.
Upon arriving at the Peace Circle, near the restricted Capitol grounds, around 12:50 p.m., the Proud Boys led chants such as “USA!” and “Whose Capitol? Our Capitol!” Shortly after, the crowd surged towards a police barricade, overpowering it and advancing towards the Capitol.
By 12:57 p.m., Vournas, Lobianco, and other rioters had moved past the downed barricades towards the Northwest Stairs of the Capitol. For the next hour, police struggled to contain the mob as certain Proud Boys members assaulted officers.
Court documents indicate that Vournas used pepper gel, a dangerous weapon, twice against police officers, injuring a United States Capitol Police (USCP) officer. Concurrently, Lobianco pushed other rioters into the police line, causing it to collapse and allowing the mob to advance up the Northwest Stairs.
At approximately 2:14 p.m., Vournas and Lobianco entered the Capitol through the Senate Wing Door, while Congress was still in session. Vournas carried the pepper gel he had used earlier. Inside, they took pictures in the Crypt before exiting through the Senate Wing Door around 2:25 p.m.
The FBI arrested Vournas and Lobianco on January 4, 2024, in Florida.
This case is being prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia and the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section, with assistance from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida. The investigation is being conducted by the FBI’s Tampa and Washington Field Offices, with support from the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.
In the 44 months since January 6, 2021, more than 1,504 individuals from nearly all 50 states have been charged with crimes related to the Capitol breach, including over 560 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement, a felony. The investigation is ongoing.
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