CONSEQUENCE IS REAL 



TZEDEK” MEANS JUSTICE

 

Jewish Expression  “TZEDEK, TZEDEK TIRDOF,” or “Justice, Justice you shall pursue,” Is one of the most famous quotations from the Torah.  

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Supreme Court Judge, Ruth Bader Ginsberg fighting for a more perfect union that these bastards would destroy, had these  words on the wall of her office —  We shall remember Justice Is Truth" — 

More than 840 people have been arrested for storming the US Capitol building on Jan. 6, 2021, with charges ranging from obstruction of an official proceeding to assault. But 17 months after the attempted insurrection, a significant number of rioters are still awaiting their sentencing.

Only around a quarter of those arrested—185 individuals—have received criminal sentences, while the rest are waiting for their trials or haven’t yet reached plea agreements. According to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia, 80 defendants were sentenced to periods of incarceration, with longer prison terms for those who engaged in violence or threats. 

So far, the median prison sentence for the Jan. 6 rioters is 45 days. An additional 57 rioters have been sentenced to periods of home detention, while most sentences have included fines, community service and probation for low-level offenses like illegally parading or demonstrating in the Capitol, which is a misdemeanor. 

Hundreds of additional cases are expected to be adjudicated in the coming months, with a number of sentencing hearings already on the calendar this fall. 


LONGEST SENTENCE SO FAR — 10 YEARS


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CNN) — Former New York Police Department officer Thomas Webster, who unsuccessfully tried to convince a Washington, DC,  jury that he was merely acting in self-defense against a police officer who he assaulted on January 6, 2021, was sentenced to 10 years in prison Thursday. 

This is the longest sentence of any January 6 defendant so far. In videos played during his trial, the 56-year-old former Marine can be seen swinging a metal flagpole at DC officer Noah Rathbun before crossing police barriers at the US Capitol and tackling Rathbun, choking him with the officer's chinstrap.  In May, Webster was found guilty of all six charges he faced, five of which were felonies. 

"It is not until you arrived, Mr. Webster, that all hell broke loose," Judge Amit Mehta said of the police line which Webster broke.    "I still remained shocked every time I see it," Mehta said of the video. "Nobody pushed you forward, you ran," the judge added, noting several times how the video completely contradicted Webster's own testimony of the assault.

"You constructed an alternative truth," Mehta said of Webster's testimony on the stand in May, adding that his claims of self-defense were “ just not credible" and calling his testimony "utterly fanciful."

Webster, who spoke through tears before his sentence was handed down, asked Mehta for "mercy," saying that he “ failed to have the courage to contain" himself that day.   “ I can never look at my kids the same way again," Webster said. "The way they look at me, it's different now. ... I was their hero until January 6." 

Officer Rathbun, dressed in his police uniform, attended the hearing, sitting in the back of the courtroom.  Turning to Rathbun, Webster apologized to the officer, simply saying he was sorry. 

During the sentencing, prosecutors noted that Webster brought a firearm to Washington, DC, -- which he left behind on January 6 -- and wore his police-issued body armor to the Capitol.

Webster's attorney, James Monroe, wrote in a court filing that Webster's actions -- which he previously argued were in self-defense and justified -- were now "unmistakably violent and reprehensible," calling them, "unspeakable" acts. 

Monroe told Judge Mehta that Webster should be sentenced to time served for what he called “ seconds of stupidity."   "He's such a decent guy," Monroe said.   Monroe also shifted the blame to former President Donald Trump and the Republican party for turning Webster, and “ otherwise decent, law abiding individuals  — against fellow Americans." 


Off-Duty Police Officer Sentenced to 87 Months in Prison On Charges Related to Capitol Breach —  Thomas Robertson 

WASHINGTON – Defendant Carried Wooden Stick, Confronted Police Officers; Later Destroyed Cellphones to Hide Evidence of Crimes

An off-duty police officer from Virginia was sentenced today to 87 months in prison for his actions during and after the breach of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. His and others’ actions disrupted a joint session of the U.S. Congress convened to ascertain and count the electoral votes related to the presidential election.

Thomas Robertson, 49, of Ferrum, Virginia, was sentenced in the District of Columbia.   Another off-duty officer and co-defendant, Jacob Fracker, 30, of Rocky Mount, Virginia, pleaded guilty on March 18, 2021, to a federal conspiracy charge. His sentencing is scheduled for Aug. 16, 2022.

“Thomas Robertson, despite swearing an oath of office when he became a police officer, joined the violent mob at the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, and did so while armed,” said U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves. “Today’s sentence holds him accountable for his role in the violence that day.”

According to court documents, Robertson and Fracker, both officers with the Rocky Mount, Virginia Police Department, were off duty when they headed for Washington, DC in Robertson’s car on the morning of Jan. 6, 2021. Both brought along their police identification badges and firearms but left those in their vehicle when they arrived in the Washington metropolitan area. 

They went to the Washington Monument area, where they attended a rally, and then headed to the Capitol, where a mob was gathering. Both donned gas masks and approached the Lower West Terrace of the Capitol, where they joined an advancing mob of rioters. Robertson carried a large wooden stick and confronted members of the Metropolitan Police Department, who had arrived to provide back-up to U.S. Capitol Police officers who were defending the West Front of the Capitol from the mob. 

Fracker entered the Capitol at approximately 2:14 p.m.  and Robertson entered a few minutes later. They met up inside the Capitol’s Crypt, where they took a selfie of themselves making an obscene gesture in front of a statue. Throughout the day, both Robertson and Fracker used their mobile phones to take photos and video footage of their activity.

Robertson and Fracker were arrested on Jan. 13, 2021. Prior to their arrests, federal law enforcement officers called them, informed them of their arrest warrants, and ordered them to turn themselves in later in the day. After learning he had been criminally charged for his conduct at the Capitol, Robertson took Fracker’s phone and destroyed it and his own phone to hide the evidence of their crimes. 

Robertson was found guilty by a jury on April 11, 2022, of a total of six charges following a trial in the District of Columbia. The jury found him guilty of five felonies: obstruction of an official proceeding, civil disorder, entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds while carrying a dangerous weapon, disorderly and disruptive conduct in a restricted building while carrying a dangerous weapon, and tampering with a document or proceedings. 

He also was found guilty of the misdemeanor offense of disorderly conduct in a Capitol building. Following his prison term, Robertson will be placed on three years of supervised release. He also must pay $2,000 in restitution.

The case is being prosecuted by the US Attorney’s Office for the District of Columbia with assistance from the Department of Justice National Security Division’s Counterterrorism Section. Valuable assistance was provided by the US Attorney’s Office for the Western District of Virginia.

The case is being investigated by the FBI’s Washington Field Office with assistance from the Roanoke Resident Agency of the FBI’s Richmond Field Office. Valuable assistance was provided by the U.S. Capitol Police and the Metropolitan Police Department.

In the 19 months since Jan. 6, 2021, more than 860 individuals have been arrested in nearly all 50 states for crimes related to the breach of the US Capitol, including over 260 individuals charged with assaulting or impeding law enforcement. 

 

2nd Defendant Convicted At Trial Receives Longest Sentence Of 7 Years 

Guy Reffitt was a recruiter for the Texas Three Percenters who was found guilty of coming armed to the riot, threatening his children and leading a mob that broke in to the US Capitol 
The first U.S. Capitol riot defendant convicted at trial was sentenced to more than seven years in prison Monday, the longest punishment handed down to date over the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on Congress.

Guy Reffitt, a recruiter for the right-wing Three Percenters movement in Texas, was convicted March 8 of five felony offenses, including obstruction of Congress as it met to certify the 2020 election result, interfering with police and carrying a firearm to a riot, and threatening his teenage son, who turned him in to the FBI.
Prosecutors said Reffitt led a mob while armed at the Capitol and asked a judge to sentence him to 15 years after applying a terrorism sentencing penalty.

US District Judge Dabney L. Friedrich condemned Reffitt’s conduct in handing down an 87-month sentence, saying in a nearly six-hour hearing that his views espousing political violence were “absurd,” “delusional” and “way outside of the mainstream.”

What Reffitt and others did at the Capitol “is the antithesis of patriotism,” Friedrich said, adding: “Not only are they not patriots, they are a direct threat to our democracy, and will be punished as such.”


Robert Scott Palmer: 63 Months In Prison  —  The Florida man who hurled wooden boards and a fire extinguisher at police officers guarding the Lower West Terrace tunnel of the Capitol was sentenced to more than five years in federal prison—the longest sentence given to anyone charged in the Jan. 6 riot. 

“Defendant’s repeated violent assaults on law enforcement for the purpose of overturning a democratic election warrant a significant term of imprisonment,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Robert Juman wrote in the sentencing memo Dec. 10. 

Palmer, age 54 at his sentencing, pleaded guilty in October to assaulting law enforcement officers with a dangerous weapon. His plea agreement originally called for a 46 to 57 month sentence, but it was increased to 63 months after he wrote on his fundraising website that he had acted in self-defense, contradicting his earlier comments in court about taking responsibility for his actions.  Personally if this pr*ck died in prison I would be very happy —  


Reservist Inspired by Unabomber Gets Felony Gun Crimes Added — 

A naval reservist assigned to an agency that operates the nation's spy satellites is facing felony weapons charges, in addition to the misdemeanors he's already been charged with stemming from his alleged participation in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.

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Petty Officer 1st Class Hatchet Speed, a cryptologic technician, has been charged with three felony counts of possessing unregistered silencers, according to court documents made public Tuesday. Authorities claim he was hoping to mimic domestic terrorists and praised Nazi leader Adolf Hitler.

Although the charges add to Speed's legal woes, the testimony of FBI agents filed as part of the indictment also paint the picture of a man who is a looming threat. Officials say he was hoarding weapons and actively looking for other like-minded people.

Speed allegedly told an undercover FBI agent in March 2022 that he was inspired by and sympathized with Eric Rudolph -- the man responsible for the deadly bombing during the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and a years-long bombing spree in Georgia -- and Ted Kaczynski, also known as the Unabomber, according to court documents.

Federal authorities claim Speed said, "It's useful to get into these people's heads and, you know, try and come up with a better game plan than they had.”   The sailor also had praise for both Hitler and the approach Islamic jihadists took in accomplishing their goals. Speed said Hitler was "one of the best people that's ever been on this earth" in a meeting on April 7.

According to Navy records provided to Military.com in June, when Speed was arrested on the original Jan. 6-related charges, the sailor had been assigned to several prominent commands in the Washington, D.C., area, including the Navy Criminal Investigative Service Headquarters and Naval Information Warfare Systems Command.

However, court records also allege that, after Jan. 6, Speed made comments to undercover FBI agents that suggested "he was 'panic buying'" guns and ammunition. In all, investigators say the man bought more than $50,000 worth of guns and parts between February and May of last year. In February 2022, law enforcement officials said Speed told an undercover agent he was "looking for resistance groups," adding that he was "looking for people who are willing to say how do we do something more than just complaining on Telegram.”  Speed also allegedly disclosed a connection to the Proud Boys and told agents that "100 of us Proud Boys" went to a November 2020 rally in Washington, DC.

Court records show that Speed is now on home arrest pending his trial in federal court in Virginia and is subject to GPS monitoring. He also agreed to surrender his passport and not have any guns.


Related: Record Sentence for Vet Who Assaulted a Cop with Marine Corps Flag on Jan. 6


Devlyn Thompson: 46 Months In Prison  —  Thompson took part in the rioting for nearly three hours on Jan. 6, during which time he assaulted a police officer with a metal baton. He also tried to throw a speaker at the police, but missed and ended up injuring another rioter. 

Thompson later pleaded guilty to assault with a dangerous weapon. In December, Federal District Court Judge Royce Lamberth sentenced the 28-year-old Thompson to 46 months in prison with credit for time served, along with 36 months of supervised release and a required payment of $2,000 in restitution. 

“You didn’t just come up and sock a guy in the face,” Lamberth said at the sentencing. “You’re shoving and pushing…and participating in this riot for hours.” Thompson apologized to the officer he hit with the baton in a letter filed in court.


Lonnie Leroy Coffman: 46 Months In Prison —  Coffman drove to Capitol Hill from Alabama on Jan. 6, 2021, in a pickup truck loaded with powerful weapons, and is believed to have been the most heavily armed defendant during the attack. In his truck, investigators found a small arsenal of molotov cocktails, a 9mm handgun, a rifle, a shotgun, hundreds of rounds of ammunition, large-capacity ammunition feeding devices, a crossbow with bolts, machetes, camouflage smoke detectors and gas-filled Mason jars used to make napalm (a kind of homemade bomb). Coffman, age 72 at his sentencing in April, was also carrying two handguns at the time of his arrest. All the guns were loaded.

“I don’t think I’ve seen in all my years as a judge, quite such a collection of weapons,” said U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly, according to The Washington Post.

During the trial, neither Coffman nor his lawyer offered an explanation as to why he brought such weaponry to the Capitol. Although he wandered away from his truck and never used any of them, his sentence is one of the longest yet imposed in the Capitol attack investigation. “I wish that I had stayed home,” Coffman told the judge from a remote video screen in jail. He pleaded guilty to possession of unregistered weapons and was sentenced to 46 months in prison in April.


Nicholas Languerand: 44 Months In Prison —  Court documents show that Languerand, a QAnon follower, threw various objects at officers with the U.S. Capitol Police and Metropolitan Police Department, including an orange traffic barrier and two stick-like objects. The officers were protecting the Lower West Terrace entrance to the Capitol.

Prosecutors claimed the items were capable of inflicting serious bodily injury based on the size and weight of the objects, as well as the speed and force with which Languerand threw them. During his trial, investigators said he showed little remorse and indicated that he wanted to see more violence, alleging he had sent a message to an associate that read, “Violence isn’t always the answer but in the face of tyranny violence may be the only answer,” and “Next time we come back with rifles.”

Languerand, age 26 at his sentencing, pleaded guilty in November to assaulting, resisting, or impeding officers with a dangerous weapon. He was sentenced to 44 months in prison, followed by mandatory two years of supervised release. He was also ordered to perform 60 hours of community service and to pay $2,000 in restitution.


Jacob Anthony Chansley: 41 months in prison —  Chansley—a self-described shaman and a follower of the QAnon conspiracy theory—is one of the most recognizable Jan. 6 rioters, thanks to viral photographs of his outlandish getup. 

According to court documents, Chansley confessed to federal agents that he was the man photographed in former Vice President Mike Pence’s chair on the Senate dais with his face painted, wearing a horned headdress and no shirt. His imposing image became a symbol of the Jan. 6 attack, though he later expressed regret for storming the Capitol. 

“What you did was terrible. You made yourself the epitome of the riot,” Lamberth said Nov. 17. “You didn’t slug anybody, but what you did here was actually obstruct the functioning of the whole government. It’s a serious crime.” 

Chansley, age 34 at his sentencing, pleaded guilty to one charge: obstruction of an official proceeding. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison. 


Scott Kevin Fairlamb: 41 Months In Prison —  Videos from the Capitol riot show Fairlamb climbing on inauguration scaffolding, pushing a police officer into a group of people and punching the officer’s face shield. Court filings also indicate that Fairlamb briefly entered the Capitol. 

In one video he posted to Facebook on Jan. 6, Fairlamb yells: “What patriots do? We f—n’ disarm them and then we storm the f—n’ Capitol.”   Fairlamb, age 44 at his sentencing, pleaded guilty in August to assaulting an officer and obstructing an official proceeding of Congress. He was sentenced to 41 months in prison, with credit for time served, and ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution for damages to the building.


Greg Rubenacker: 41 Months In Prison —  The Long Island DJ who recorded himself smoking marijuana inside the US Capitol building was sentenced to three years and five months in prison after pleading guilty to all 10 charges he faced, including civil disorder and committing an act of physical violence on Capitol grounds.

Court documents show Rubenacker, age 26 at his sentencing, engaged in a series of confrontations with law enforcement while inside the Capitol, and was among the small crowd that chased Capitol Police Officer Eugene Goodman up the stairs outside the Senate Chamber. Prosecutors said Rubenacker resisted officers who were trying to force the rioters from the area, swinging a plastic water bottle at one officer’s head and spraying water from the bottle. He also posted a video of himself smoking a joint on Snapchat with the caption “Smoke out the Capitol, baby.”   Following his prison term, Rubenacker will be placed on three years of supervised release. He was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution.


Matthew Ryan Miller: 33 Months In Prison  — Draped in a Confederate flag, the 21-year-old Maryland man was seen on video throwing objects at police officers and scaling the walls of the Capitol building. According to court documents, Miller, age 23 at his sentencing in May 2022, threw a full beer can and batteries in the direction of law enforcement. He also sprayed a fire extinguisher directly into the tunnel onto police officers. His lawyer claimed he was drunk and high at the time.

After scaling a Capitol wall using a metal barrier as a ladder, Miller urged others in the mob to join him. He assisted rioters, waved his hands and said multiple times “Come on” as the crowd chanted “Heave! Ho!” He also urged the mob to help him push against law enforcement officers on the Lower West Terrace, putting up his fingers and yelling “One, two, three, push!” multiple times.

Following his prison term, Miller will be placed on 24 months of supervised release and must pay $2,000 in restitution. He must also complete 100 hours of community service.


Cleveland Meredith, Jr.: 28 Months In Prison  — Meredith traveled from Colorado to attend the “Stop the Steal” rally that led to the attempted insurrection at the Capitol, but later told investigators that he arrived too late in the evening. The day afterward, on Jan. 7, he sent a family member in Georgia a text message threatening to kill House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. Meredith’s mother contacted the FBI, and members located him at a Holiday Inn a mile from the Capitol. 

Meredith gave investigators consent to search his phone, along with his truck and trailer outside. The FBI discovered texts in which he threatened to assassinate Pelosi and District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser. He had sent a text earlier that day that said, “Calm before the STORM,” seemingly referring to a cataclysmic event in which QAnon followers believed that Donald Trumpwould expose a cabal of satanic pedophiles. In the search of Meredith’s trailer, the FBI found an assault rifle, a nine millimeter pistol and hundreds of rounds of ammunition. 

Meredith, age 53 at his sentencing, pleaded guilty to communicating a threat across state lines. In December, he received a sentence of 28 months in prison with credit for time served.


Michael Curzio: 6 Months In Prison  —  Curzio, who has ties with a white supremacist gang and was at the front of the crowd on Jan. 6, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count and served the maximum sentence of six months in jail. He participated in the Capitol riot just two years after he was released from an eight-year prison sentence for attempted murder.

Justice Department lawyers said Curzio had an “undisputed history” of membership with an extremist group known as the Unforgiven, a violent, white supremacist gang operating both inside and outside of the Florida corrections system. “At the time of his arrest, he bore tattoos with Nazi symbology associated with that gang and was wearing a necklace with a Thor’s-hammer pendant,” the Justice Department wrote. “While he claims the pendant is a representation of sincere religious belief, Thor’s hammer is also known to be a white-supremacist symbol.  Curzio, age 35 at his sentencing, was released from prison in July.


Gracyn Dawn Courtright: 1 Month In Prison —  While she was inside the Capitol, Courtright, then age 23 and a senior at the University of Kentucky, took a photo of herself in a mirror and afterward posted it to Instagram, along with the words, “INFAMY IS JUST AS GOOD AS FAME.” She shared her participation in the riot on Instagram multiple times, and someone took a screenshot and reported her. 

Footage from Jan. 6 shows Courtright on the second floor of the Capitol building, holding up a “Members Only” sign. Authorities arrested her two weeks later and she faced multiple charges, including for theft of the sign.

Courtright pleaded guilty to a charge of entering a restricted building in August, at which point other charges against her were dropped. In December, she was sentenced to one month in prison. In addition, she has a year of supervised release following her sentence, will need to complete 60 hours of community service and must pay $500 in restitution for damages to the Capitol. 

Following her arrest, Courtright withdrew from college.


Robert Chapman: 18 Months Of Probation —  One week after Jan. 6, Chapman told someone on the dating app Bumble that he took part in the riot. “I did storm the capitol,” he wrote in a message. “I made it all the way to Statuary Hall!” The person Chapman confessed to then replied, “We are not a match.”

Later that day, the person Chapman communicated with on Bumble contacted the FBI. Federal investigators matched Chapman’s Bumble profile to images of him inside the Capitol building. They identified him by working with New York State authorities and matching his likeness to a 2017 mugshot, in which he had the same distinctive sideburns.

In December, Chapman, at age 51, pleaded guilty to “parading, demonstrating or picketing” in a Capitol building. He was later sentenced to 3 months of home detention, followed by 18 months of probation, and was ordered to pay a $742 fine and $500 restitution.


Richard Barnett: Awaiting Sentencing  —  Barnett was photographed with his foot on a desk in Pelosi’s office during the violence at the Capitol. 
He was released in April while he awaits his trial, after spending nearly four months in jail on charges including obstructing an official proceeding, entering the Capitol while armed with a deadly or dangerous weapon (a stun gun), and theft of government property (for stealing a piece of government mail). Federal prosecutors say Barnett deleted all of his iCloud data related to the Jan. 6 insurrection, according to a recent court filing.

Barnett, age 60 at the time of his arrest, is scheduled to stand trial on Sept. 6 and could face a sentencing of up to 87 months in prison if he is found guilty on all charges.


Matthew Greene: Awaiting Sentencing  — Greene is the first self-identified member of the Proud Boys—a far-right extremist group—to plead guilty to obstructing Congress and conspiring to obstruct law enforcement during the Capitol attack. 

Court documents indicate Greene, age 34 at the time of his plea, was “among the first wave” to rush up the Capitol steps after the police line was breached. He faces up to 25 years in prison, although prosecutors plan to recommend a sentence of 41 to 50 months because he agreed to cooperate with law enforcement. In March, Greene was allowed out of jail and placed in home confinement until he is sentenced.


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