Jan. 6 Suicide Victim Was Told ‘He Would Not Receive a Fair Trial in This Town’

Matthew L. Perna's aunt, federal lawmakers sound the alarm on treatment of Jan. 6 defendants, detainees

Geri Perna discusses the Feb. 25 suicide of her nephew, Matthew L. Perna, at a Capitol Hill news conference on March 17, 2022. At right is Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Georgia. Rep. Louie Gohmert Rumble/Screenshot via The Epoch Times

The 14-month ordeal of battling charges over his time at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, had put so much stress on Matthew L. Perna that he began vomiting blood.

When the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) asked to delay his sentencing and announced that it would seek more prison time, it was a bridge too far. Perna took his own life on Feb. 25 in Sharon, Pennsylvania. He was 37.