After pleading guilty to a misdemeanor charge for unlawfully entering the Capitol building on January 6, 2021, Michael Gary Stepakoff was slapped with a disciplinary revocation last month, which is tantamount to disbarment. The 58-year-old Tampa-area man was arrested three weeks after the riot and sentenced last year to one year of probation and two months of home confinement for his conduct on the day the mob stormed the Capitol to stop Congress from certifying President Joe Biden's defeat of Donald Trump.
Stepakoff, who is allowed to seek readmission to the Florida Bar in five years, appears to be the first attorney disciplined by the Florida Supreme Court for January 6-related crimes.
According to prosecutors, Stepakoff spent roughly five minutes inside the Capitol during the riot, later sharing a selfie and other photos on Facebook. "Epic and historical moment," he captioned the group of pictures. In surveillance footage, he can be seen strolling into the Capitol lobby among rioters and snapping photos.
Stepakoff's wife also posted on social media about him entering the building.
"Update on Michael y’all. Please continue to [pray] for his protection and to be safe. He texted me privately and said he is okay but it’s very dangerous where he is," she wrote alongside praying and red heart emojis, according to court documents. "He was inside the Capitol building."
Stepakoff pleaded guilty in September 2021 to parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building, a misdemeanor punishable by up to six months' imprisonment.
In the sentencing phase, his lawyer argued that a $50 fine would suffice as his penalty, noting that Stepakoff disavowed violence and did not damage or deface property.
Michael Stepakoff posted a series of photos on Facebook of himself outside the U.S. Capitol with the caption: “Epic and historical moment."
Screenshot via U.S. Department of Justice
"Entering the Capitol was a terrible mistake on my part," Stepakoff said in 2022. "I deeply regret it. I wish I could take it back, but I can’t. It was not done in defiance or as an act of civil disobedience, but because I failed to properly appreciate the situation."
To no avail, prosecutors sought two weeks of jail time for Stepakoff, arguing that as an attorney seasoned in criminal law, he should have known his acts were illegal.
During sentencing, the presiding federal judge said Stepakoff was portraying himself as an oblivious "Mr. Magoo-like character" but that he knew or should have known the gravity of what was transpiring around him.
A former criminal defense attorney, Stepakoff received a six-month suspension of his law license in 2006 after he allegedly suggested his 94-year-old client invest $30,000 in a real estate development company, without disclosing that he was part owner of the business.
According to Stepakoff's counsel, he left the legal profession and pursued his full-time rabbinical career that same year.
Stepakoff is the founder of Temple New Jerusalem, a Messianic synagogue in Tarpon Springs where he's served as senior rabbi for more than two decades. Messianic Judaism, which is rejected as a form of Judaism by major denominations, follows Jewish law but endorses the belief that Jesus is the messiah.
He holds weekly services at the synagogue on Saturday mornings.
