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Michael Lee Roche

Pardoned January 6 defendant

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Michael Lee Roche was 28 years old, a young man from Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and the thing he reached for on the Senate floor was a Bible. That detail is in the government's own filings. Michael Lee Roche, of Murfreesboro in Rutherford County, Tennessee, entered the Capitol with the crowd at roughly 2:45 p.m. Court documents describe him going to the Senate floor, picking up a Bible that was sitting on the desk, holding it up in the air, and posing for a photograph. He was there about seven minutes. (FACT: DOJ, HSToday) Seven minutes. That is the span of conduct this case turned on. The legal fight. Michael Roche was arrested April 13, 2021 and had his initial appearance in the Middle District of Tennessee the same day. He was released on conditions and stayed on release. (FACT: DOJ) He did not take a plea deal. On March 10, 2023 he was found guilty following a stipulated trial, a procedure that preserves a defendant's ability to challenge the law itself on appeal rather than waiving it. He was convicted of obstruction of an official proceeding, a felony, plus entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly and disruptive conduct, entering and remaining on the floor of Congress, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building, and parading. (FACT: DOJ) He was sentenced to 18 months in prison, 36 months of supervised release and $2,000 in restitution. (FACT: DOJ, Highland County Press) GENERAL LEGAL CONTEXT: The felony obstruction statute used against Michael Lee Roche and hundreds of other January 6 defendants, 18 U.S.C. 1512(c)(2), was narrowed by the U.S. Supreme Court in Fischer v. United States in June 2024. That ruling reshaped the single most serious count in this case. (FACT: Fischer v. United States, U.S. Supreme Court, 2024) On January 20, 2025, the presidential clemency proclamation reached the January 6 cases, including felony convictions like his. Michael Lee Roche of Murfreesboro, Tennessee was a young man who went to Washington and came home to years of federal prosecution. He is more than seven minutes. CASE RECORD Case number: 1:21-mj-359 Court: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia Arrested: April 13, 2021. Initial appearance same day, Middle District of Tennessee. Released on conditions. Disposition: Found guilty March 10, 2023 following a stipulated trial. Sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, 36 months supervised release and $2,000 restitution. Covered by the January 20, 2025 clemency proclamation. DOJ docket page: https://www.justice.gov/usao-dc/defendants/roche-michael-lee This profile is unclaimed. If this is you — or your family — claiming it is free, forever.