MAGA rioter asks judge to credit his 'courage' for being ‘first to step forward’ in Capitol insurrection

A U.S. Capitol rioter who carried a Trump flag into the well of the Senate has asked a judge to credit his "strength of character" and grant him leniency.

Paul Hodgkins, who took a selfie in the Senate Chamber during the Jan. 6 insurrection, pleaded guilty last month to one count of obstructing an official proceeding, and his attorneys filed a sentencing memo invoking the Civl War and so-called "cancel culture," reported MSNBC's Scott MacFarlane.

"It takes courage and strength of character to be the first person to step forward," the filing read.

The 38-year-old Tampa man was actually the second rioter to plead guilty in the election-related assault, and his attorneys said the court should extend the same "grace" toward violent Donald Trump supporters as Abraham Lincoln and Ulysses Grant showed to Confederate traitors.

"This Court stands in the shadows of Lincoln and Grant," the filing read. "The rebellion of the south did not deserve the 'grace' that Lincoln and Grant would provide. But the malice and humiliation that many might have sought would not heal the nation as both Lincoln and Grant fully understood."

The attorneys asked the judge not to enact "vengeance and the malice" that "many on one side of the spectrum seek," and instead grant leniency to their client.

"Paul Hodgkins should not be cancelled," the filing reads.