Federal judges are growing more urgent in their warnings about the "ongoing risk" to America posed by Jan. 6 rioters and what they stand for, according to NBC4 Washington's Scott MacFarlane, the network's principle correspondent covering the criminal cases.
"Today ended up being a busy day of sentencings in U.S. Capitol riot prosecutions," MacFarlane said late Friday. "And among the things we saw — the longest sentence handed down so far in a Jan. 6 prosecution: five years, three months for defendant Robert Palmer, who was accused of going after police here that day with a pole and with a fire extinguisher. We heard multiple defendants, including Palmer, tearfully say they were sorry as they asked for leniency, say they were horrified or ashamed of what they did, say they've learned their lesson."
"But it wasn't what the defendants said today, or the prosecutors," MacFarlane continued. "Today was a day about what the judges said. In particular today, they really leaned into the defendants, into the significance of the unparalleled American moment that occurred Jan. 6 here at the Capitol, and into the significance of that day and this prosecution to our country. While sentencing Palmer, the judge said Jan. 6 was a, quote, 'violent attempt to overthrow a duly elected government' — (and) that it was law enforcement, the first responders, and the congressional staff in Congress, that were the real patriots on Jan. 6, not the mob. (The judge) mentioned the horrifying image of those gallows erected on the opposite side of the Capitol, and of seeing the mob egg each other on, even as police were being beaten."
"In a different case, in a lower-level case today — (in which) a defendant (was) accused of being in the U.S. Senate chamber — the judge said what occurred on Jan. 6 hurts the credibility of our country in the world," MacFarlane added. "That America is no longer seen, or it's more difficult to champion our country, as that shining light on the hill, that shining city on the hill. The judges, nearly a year later, as cases get more and more serious for the sentencing(s), are taking this moment to underscore the significance of Jan. 6, 2021, to make sure America recognizes the significance of what happened that day, and that Jan. 6 was, and is, a threat to our country."
Watch below.
