Journalist Aaron Cantu made an initial court appearance Friday to face new criminal charges that could carry decades in prison for alleged rioting and property destruction during President Donald Trump’s inauguration.

Cantu, who works for the Santa Fe Reporter and has had articles published by Vice, The Nation, The Guardian and The Intercept, declined to comment inside a courthouse in the nation’s capital. His attorney Chantale Fiebig also declined to comment on the case, which the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press has criticized.

Wearing a suit and tie, Cantu appeared alongside more than three dozen other defendants crowded in a horseshoe around Judge Lynn Leibovitz. He accepted an Oct. 15, 2018 trial date and entered a not guilty plea for three separate rioting charges and five felony destruction of property charges.

An attorney for another defendant predicted before the hearing that Trump would be impeached before most trials occur.

Many people stood during the hearing and the large chamber ran out of chairs to seat defendants next to their lawyers. Leibovitz joked "we won't tell the fire marshals" about the cramped conditions.

When Assistant U.S. Attorney Jennifer Kerkhoff said it would be inefficient to split trials into small groups to accommodate defendants wanting a 2017 trial date, the judge said forcefully, "you have chosen to charge 215 people" and "there are a lot of efficient ways to resolve this."

The defendants were arrested following a Jan. 20 anti-capitalism march. After windows were smashed, police chased members of march, accompanied by journalists and legal observers, through the streets of the nation’s capital. Some of the most aggressive activists busted through a police line and avoided arrest.

Though some reporters were allowed to leave the cordon, others were arrested and taken to jail alongside legal observers wearing green hats and marchers who say they committed no act of vandalism or violence. In total, 235 people were arrested, five of them minors.

The new felony charges come after prosecutors struggled to win guilty pleas for a single initial charge of felony rioting. On April 27, 212 people were indicted on the new charges, but Cantu was not among them, with the prosecutor’s office saying they were reviewing the case.

Cantu was individually indicted on the new charges last week. The indictment does not offer specific information about Cantu that would indicate prosecutors believe he committed an act of vandalism or violence.

Independent journalist and professional photographer Alexei Wood, who live-streamed the entirety of his conduct during the march, was indicted on the new felony charges in April.

It’s unclear why Cantu and Wood are being treated differently than other journalists and photographers who have seen charges dropped. Wood has repeatedly criticized his charges, but Cantu has not made public statements on the advice of his attorney.

U.S. Attorney’s Office spokesman Bill Miller declined to comment on Cantu’s case.

The harsh new charges have yielded more guilty pleas from activists. When the new charges were filed, just two people had pleaded guilty to misdemeanor rioting.

A day after the new indictment, Dane Powell, who was arrested Jan. 21 for throwing a rock or piece of concrete at police hours after the mass-arrest group was surrounded, pleaded guilty to various charges. He faces a possible two to six years in prison in July.

Since the new charges were added, five more defendants have pleaded guilty to misdemeanor rioting and in each case prosecutors have agreed to one year of unsupervised probation, a fine and 50 hours of community service.

A group of more than 100 defendants has pledged not to accept a plea deal, viewing the mass arrest as a violent violation of their constitutional rights. A civil lawsuit argues the mass arrest was illegal.

The felony charges carry a statutory maximum of more than 70 years in prison. The precise maximum isn’t yet known, and sentencing guidelines likely would call for less prison time than the law allows.

Two of the rioting charges and all five destruction of property charges carry a 10-year maximum, but prosecutors have not decided how to treat a conspiracy to riot charge, which has a 5-year maximum or less depending on how it's applied.

The journalists and photographers who have seen charges dropped are a mixed bag. Some work for major media companies, but among them are Shay Horse, a photographer who describes himself as an anarchist, and independent livestream videographer Matt Hopard.

Evan Engel, at the time a senior producer for Vocativ, had his case dismissed Jan. 27, after his employer hired a prominent D.C. attorney. The case against Hopard was dismissed on Jan. 30 alongside the charges facing Alex Rubinstein of RT and documentary filmmaker John Keller. “After a review of evidence presented to us by law enforcement, we have concluded that we will not proceed with the charges against the three defendants, who are journalists,” the U.S. attorney’s office said in a statement.

On Feb. 21, charges were dropped against Horse and two other photographers, Alexander Contompasis and Cheney Orr. The U.S. attorney’s office did not declare the photographers to be journalists or provide a reason, saying in a statement, “We typically do not comment on charging decisions and have no comment on these dismissals.”

Attorney Wylie Stecklow, who worked with local defense lawyers for Horse and Hopard, told U.S. News that although they were not at the time employed by a media organization, the men sought to prove to prosecutors they were operating as journalists.

“The information presented was two-fold,” Stecklow says. “Initially, proof of prior work as journalist. It was documented that these individuals had attended other activities of interest, livestreamed and photographed such activities, and sold, or had these images posted on line for sale with a photo agency.”

Then, Stecklow says, “prosecutors performed their own due diligence to confirm that these journalists were in fact acting as journalists on Jan. 20, documenting the activities and not organizing. Seemingly, this may have turned out different if the citizen journalist had somehow organized a carpool of activists and citizen journalists to travel together to D.C.“

Cantu’s current employer hired him in April and said in a statement this week that his employment would not be affected by the case.