Capitol rioter suffered 'self-inflicted damage' during sentencing: report

On Friday, CBS News' Scott MacFarlane outlined how a serious offender in the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol did "self-inflicted damage" to his own criminal case.

"For so many of the Capitol rioters who inflicted so much damage here on January 6, they're also doing quite a bit of damage to their own criminal cases and damage to themselves," said MacFarlane. "We really saw that play out today in the particularly high-profile sentencing of Doug Jensen."

Jensen, a QAnon conspiracy theorist from Des Moines, Iowa, received a five-year prison sentence after being convicted for leading the mob in an assault against police at the Capitol, directly confronting Eugene Goodman, the hero police officer who secured the area where members of Congress were exiting.

"Today was sentencing day, and he was recommending a shorter sentence, just 27 months," said MacFarlane. "Prosecutors were seeking more than five years. Today was Doug Jensen's day to make his argument, to seek leniency, to do himself some good in his case. It ends up, he did just the opposite."

"First of all, let me tell you about the testimony we heard today," said MacFarlane. "It was actually Capitol Police Inspector Tom Lloyd, not Eugene Goodman but Goodman's supervisor ... who spoke in court. What Tom Lloyd said really seemed to land with the judge as well. Saying that, if not for Eugene Goodman luring that mob away from the evacuating U.S. senators, there would have been bloodshed, perhaps quite a bit of it. Doug Jensen might not have walked out of the Capitol after the riot. Then Lloyd spoke about all the injuries, all the trauma suffered by police that day. To balance that, or try to counter that, Doug Jensen spoke on his own behalf to seek leniency. And rather than accepting responsibility, rather than expressing remorse to the judge, Jensen said he simply wants to go home, to go back to his normal life before he became involved with politics. Jensen, who has been held in a Virginia jail pending his sentencing, got a sentence of five years."

"One of the things the judge said stuck with me," continued MacFarlane. "He said he just didn't hear an acceptance of responsibility from Jensen, and that if he had heard that, there may have been room for a downward departure. Jensen missed the opportunity, perhaps deliberately, and after causing so much damage here on January 6, he damaged his own case."