WASHINGTON: Rejecting a recommendation from prosecutors, a federal judge sentenced rioters to probation on Friday, January 6, suggesting they were arrested during an anti-racism protest after George stormed the Capitol Was. But the Justice Department was very strict. The murder of Floyds.
US District Court Judge Trevor McFadden questioned why federal prosecutors did not bring more cases against those accused in the 2020 summer protests, reading data on rioting cases in the nation’s capital. .
“I think the credibility of the U.S. Attorney will be higher if it relates to the riots and mobs in this city,” McFadden said during Danielle Doyle’s sentencing for entering the Capitol with other rioters on January 6. Prosecutors recommended two months of home imprisonment.
McFadden’s statement, the appointee of former President Donald Trump, was a major departure from other federal judges overseeing rebellion cases so far, despite other Trump appointments to the court having been assigned hundreds of cases. They have generally discussed the seriousness of the crime and its unique place in American history – different from other violent free speech protests as it sought to disrupt the peaceful transition of power.
The Associated Press analyzed more than 300 criminal cases stemming from protests over the Floyds killing, showing that many left-wing rioters had received substantial punishment, refuting the argument that Black Lives Matter protesters supported pro-Trump defendants . took. behaved more harshly.
As McFadden sentenced Doyle, she said she felt like she was acting like all the robbers and rioters she did last year. This is because the robbers and rioters decided that the law did not apply to them.
Despite these concerns, McFadden said Doyle’s behavior was unforgivable. He called it a national embarrassment, and compared it to protests against police brutality following the death of George Floyd last year, which made us all feel less safe.
In contrast, US District Judge James Bosberg on Friday sentenced another rioter, Andrew Ryan Bennett, to three months of domestic imprisonment, accepting a request from prosecutors. Bennett was accused of spying on conspiracy theories about the election and of using scathing rhetoric in posting about his plans in Washington. The mob attacked and beat up heavy police force on 6 January, causing lawmakers to be sent to save lives and causing more than $1 million in damage to the building.
As I said earlier, I cannot stress enough that the cornerstone of our democratic republic is the peaceful transfer of power after the election, the judge told Bennett. And what you and others did on January 6 was nothing less than an attempt to undermine the system of that government.
Earlier this week, former President Barack Obama-appointed Bosberg sentenced Derek Jenkart and Ohio friends Eric Rau to 45 days in prison.
All three men had pleaded guilty to a sentence of misdemeanor for a maximum sentence of six months. Like Jenkart and Rau, Bennett was not personally charged with involvement in the violence or destruction of property.
Bennett said he wasn’t thinking clearly and was pumped on adrenaline when he joined the mob that stormed the Capitol that morning as he drove to Washington from his home in Columbia, Maryland. had gone.
He said that what I did was wrong and I hold myself responsible for my actions that day.
Doyle was also not charged with mob violence. She climbed through a broken window and spent 24 minutes inside the building. She told the judge that she had no intention of harming anyone, and was sorry that the peaceful rally turned into a storm when people began storming into the building.
I love this country, she said. He said that many people came here to represent things that were important to us, but in the blink of an eye they were all covered up. I’m sorry for that, because it overshadowed the things that were good.
Meanwhile, a retired US Special Forces soldier and one-time Florida congressional candidate was arrested for his role in the rebellion. Jeremy Brown was charged with a misdemeanor charge of entering restricted grounds. FBI officers obtained photos of Brown in tactical gear at the Capitol from an acquaintance of Brown’s, and a rioter who pleaded guilty also confirmed to agents that Brown was there, according to court papers. He has said that federal officials called him and tried to inform others about him.
Brown ran for Congress in 2020 as a Republican in the 14th district, which includes Tampa and the surrounding area, but dropped out of the race in March 2020.
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Kunzelman reported from College Park, MD.
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