Not patriots, not political prisoners — U.S. judges slam Capitol riot defendants at sentencing
By Spencer S. Hsu
Yesterday at 7:55 p.m. EDT
A federal judge rejected claims that detained defendants in the Jan. 6 Capitol breach are “political prisoners” or that riot participants acted out of patriotism before sentencing a Michigan man to six months in prison Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson of Washington said Karl Dresch, 41, of Calumet, Mich, was held because of his actions, not his political views, and that others who joined the attack on Congress as it met to confirm the results of the 2020 presidential election could face prison time.
“He was not a political prisoner,” Jackson said. “We are not here today because he supported former president Trump . . . He was arrested because he was an enthusiastic participant in an effort to subvert and undo the electoral process.”
In a deal with prosecutors, Dresch pleaded guilty to a single misdemeanor count of parading, picketing or demonstrating in the Capitol after four other charges were dropped, including a felony count of obstructing an official proceeding of Congress.
Dresch has been jailed since his arrest Jan. 19, so the sentence is effectively one of time-served, and he will be released.
Jackson’s sentencing came days after four right-wing Republican members of Congress — Reps. Paul A. Gosar (R-Ariz.), Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), Louis Gohmert (R-Tex.), and Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — showed up at the D.C. jail demanding to inspect the treatment of those detained in connection with Jan. 6, whom some Trump supporters have cast as martyrs.
By contrast, in a string of plea and sentencing hearings in the riot cases, federal judges appointed by presidents of both parties condemned such claims. Some have gone further to challenge U.S. prosecutors’ acceptance of misdemeanor plea deals for individuals involved in “terrorizing members of Congress,” forcing the evacuation of lawmakers and violence that authorities have led to several deaths and assaults on nearly 140 police officers.
“Does the government, in agreeing to the petty offense in this case, have any concern about deterrence?” Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of Washington asked in accepting such a plea last Thursday.
In sentencing regretful Capitol protester, federal judge rebukes Republicans
In Dresch’s case, Jackson said he has the right to vote for whomever he wants, “but so does everyone else. Your vote doesn’t count any more than anyone else’s. You don’t get to cancel them out and call for a war because you don’t like the results of the election.”
The judge continued, “You called yourself and the others patriots, but that’s not patriotism. Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the Constitution, not loyalty to a single head of state. That’s the tyranny we rejected on July 4th of 1776.”
Dresch declined to address the court, and his defense’s sentencing request was not immediately unsealed.
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/legal-issues/capitol-riot-political-prisoners/2021/08/04/9b6adb84-f54d-11eb-9068-bf463c8c74de_story.html
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