'It was horrifying': Trump's election interference judge speaks out against Jan. 6 riots

U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan warned urgently against the public losing sight of the horrors of the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol during a routine sentencing this week.

According to Politico, Chutkan condemned the attack as a “violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power” where rioters were “desecrating the center of our government.” She added that she continues to hear from a number of police who defended the Capitol that day, “who are still getting vile threats and being called names for doing their jobs.”

The sentencing was for Spencer Offman, a man from the Detroit suburbs who was charged this January with entering a restricted building, disorderly conduct in a restricted building or grounds, disorderly conduct in a Capitol building and parading, demonstrating or picketing in a Capitol building.

Prosecutors said that when FBI officials interviewed him in 2021, he lied about his involvement in the attack, saying that he left as soon as rioters began moving barricades — only for tipsters to later provide photos of him moving barricades himself. Surveillance footage also showed him entering the Capitol building through a broken window.

Chutkan is also presiding over former President Donald Trump's federal election conspiracy case brought by special counsel Jack Smith.

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That case was delayed by a Supreme Court case that ultimately concluded with the justices ruling presidents have a presumption of immunity for official acts; Chutkan's next task, which pushes the trial itself past November, is to determine what charges and evidence against Trump would be covered by immunity — something that itself may lead to a sort of "mini-trial."

Over 1,300 people have been arrested in connection with the January 6 insurrection to date, most for misdemeanor offenses similar to Offman, but a handful for more serious crimes like assaulting police officers or seditious conspiracy.