A onetime Republican candidate for the state Legislature pleaded guilty in federal court Friday to felony obstruction of an official proceeding for his actions during the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

Nicholas Ochs, 36, founder of the Hawaii chapter of the Proud Boys, joined 32-year-old Nicholas DeCarlo of Fort Worth, Texas in admitting in federal court in Washington, D.C., to obstructing the congressional certification of President Joe Biden’s Electoral College victory. The two men shared a social media channel called “Murder the Media” and initially claimed to be working as journalists on Jan. 6, according to the government.

In Hawaii’s November 2020 general election, Ochs won nearly 30% of the vote in a bid to secure a seat in the state House representing District 22, which includes Waikiki and the Ala Moana area. He lost to Democrat Adrian Tam.

After Friday’s hearing, Edward MacMahon, a lawyer for Ochs, told the Associated Press that his client did not injure anyone at the Capitol, and said he hopes Ochs is sentenced consistent with others who did not participate in any violence.

Ochs was an “elder” within the Proud Boys group, according to federal court documents, and his responsibilities included approving new chapters. The Proud Boys are self-described members of a “pro-Western fraternal organization for men who refuse to apologize for creating the modern world, aka Western Chauvinists.”

Ochs and DeCarlo attended the “Stop the Steal” rally near the White House in support of then-President Donald Trump on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, and then marched together to the Capitol. The men admitted to throwing smoke bombs at a line of police trying to keep the mob from the stage set up for Biden’s inauguration.

DeCarlo admitted to writing “Murder the Media” in permanent marker on a door in the Capitol building, prosecutors said. The men then posed in front of the door with a thumbs-up sign. DeCarlo also rummaged through a Capitol police officer’s bag and stole a pair of plastic handcuffs, prosecutors said.

Ochs posted on Twitter a picture of the men smoking cigarettes inside the Capitol, and the caption said, “Hello from the Capital lol,” according to court papers.

After leaving the building, they filmed a video together in which Ochs said they came to “stop the steal” and DeCarlo declared, “We did it,” the government said. “Sorry we couldn’t go live when we stormed the f—in’ U.S. Capitol and made Congress flee,” Ochs said in a video with the Capitol visible in the background.

Ochs told CNN that he was working as a “professional journalist” and that he did not have to break into the Capitol, but just “walked in and filmed.” Before his arrest, DeCarlo also told The Los Angeles Times that they were journalists.

Ochs was arrested Jan. 7, 2021, in Honolulu, and DeCarlo on Jan. 26, 2021, in Texas.

Sentencing is set for Dec. 9. Ochs and DeCarlo each face a maximum of 20 years in prison for obstruction of an official proceeding, and potential financial penalties. Ochs must pay the Architect of the Capitol $2,000 and faces between $15,000 and $150,000 in possible fines, according to his plea agreement.

More than 870 people have been charged so far in the insurrection. Nearly 400 have pleaded guilty to charges ranging from low-level misdemeanors for illegally entering the building to felony seditious conspiracy.

Ochs and DeCarlo are among dozens of members and associates of the Proud Boys who have been charged in the Capitol insurrection. The group’s former chairman, Enrique Tarrio, and other leaders have been charged with seditious conspiracy — the most serious charges brought so far in the insurrection.

The leader and members of another far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers, are heading to trial later this month on the charge of seditious conspiracy. The Oath Keepers are the first Jan. 6, 2021, defendants facing the rare and difficult-to-prove charge to go to trial.

Also on Friday, a lawyer for the Oath Keepers, Kellye SoRelle, pleaded not guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct the certification of the Electoral College vote. SoRelle, a close associate of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, was arrested this month in Texas.

———

The Star-Advertiser contributed to this report.