A gyrocopter sits on the West Lawn of the U.S. Capitol with members of the U.S. Capitol Police nearby. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

Rogue Florida mailman Douglas Hughes pleaded not guilty today to six federal charges, including two felonies, for flying a gyrocopter onto the grounds of the U.S. Capitol last month.

He is charged with operating as an airman without an airman’s certificate and violating registration requirements involving aircraft, both felonies, as well as three counts of violating national defense airspace, and one of operating a vehicle falsely labeled as a postal carrier.

Oh, and they want to keep the gyrocopter—which is emblazoned with the U.S. Postal Service emblem.

Hughes made the flight to protest the role of money in politics. Here is how he explained it in an interview with NPR:

“The reason I did it, although I brought 535 letters to Congress, the reason was to get a message to the American people — not that there’s a problem with Congress but that there are solutions to the problem. Ninety-one percent of Americans know that Congress isn’t working for them. That they’re responding to special interests and lobbyists, many people don’t know that almost half the Congress, when they retire goes to work as lobbyists, oftentimes making 14 times what they made while they were in Congress as special advisers, and lobbyists, and none of them is worth $2 million a year. They’re getting paid off for voting the way the lobbyist firm that they got hired to wanted them to vote while they were in office. Anybody who looks at this can see that it’s bribery made legal by a delayed payment.”

Hughes made the flight from Gettysburg, Pa., and was able to get through three no-fly zones because air traffic controllers use a radar feed that filters out non-aircraft objects.

“The aircraft’s flight parameters fell below the threshold necessary to differentiate aircraft from weather, terrain, birds, and other slow flying objects so as to ensure that the systems and those operating them focus on that which poses the greatest threat.” said Adm. William Gortney, chief of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, in testimony at a House committee hearing.

Hughes has been held at home in Florida since shortly after his flight, and is barred from returning to D.C. except for court appearances and meetings with his lawyer.