WASHINGTON – A federal judge hearing multiple criminal cases against Donald Trump supporters who brutally attacked police officers during the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol expressed concern at a hearing Thursday that the former president could lead another violent attack. or after that 2024 presidential elections.
U.S. District Judge Rudy Contreras voiced those concerns when he sentenced Colorado geophysicist Jeffrey Sabol to 63 months, or more than five years, in federal prison. There was Sabol he said the FBI, which it believes has no doubt that the election was rigged Dominion voting machines was distorted. Sabol also told the FBI that he was filled with “patriotic rage” on January 6, that “the draft was announced” and that he “responded to the draft because he was a patriotic warrior.”
Contreras said Trump and his allies “encouraged” the attack on the Capitol and expressed concern that Sabol would respond again if a similar “call” was made.
“It doesn’t take much imagination to imagine that there will be a similar boom in the coming months,” Contreras said Thursday.
Sabol, who repeatedly assaulted officers in the lower west tunnel during the Capitol attack, was among a group of defendants held before the Jan. 6 trial, so he has already served most of his sentence. He was arrested on January 11, 2021, just five days after the attack. Before his arrest, Sabol destroyed his laptop in a microwave oven, threw his cell phone into a reservoir and attempted to fly to Zurich, Switzerland, prosecutors said.
Contreras on Thursday ordered Sabol will pay $32,165.65 in restitution and serve three years of supervised release.
Prior to the attack on the Capitol, many Trump supporters saw the former president’s December 19, 2020, “it’s going to be wild” tweet encouraging people to come to Washington on January 6.call to arms.” Like criminal cases against hundreds of Trump supporters On Jan. 6, the defendants filed in federal court and repeatedly said they acted because they believed the former president’s baseless lies about the 2020 election.
Some suspects are January 6 said they were deceived and manipulated and even, along with some of the defendants, expressed retrograde embarrassment at their lack of critical thinking skills is calling themselves idiots.
He was in the court gallery for Sabol’s punishment Mickey Witthoeft, the mother of protester Ashley Babbitt, was shot and killed by Capitol police on January 6 as she jumped through a broken window leading into the House Speaker’s lobby. Witthoeft attended a live rally for the Jan. 6 defendants outside a prison in Washington this week and said he spoke to Trump on the phone earlier in the day and the former president “talked about releasing these guys.” in” message to the defendants on January 6.
It had to be a former president is currently under trial in connection with his efforts to overcome his defeat in the elections. Instead, the Supreme Court will to hear Oral arguments on Trump’s claims of full presidential immunity from criminal charges are due next month, and it is unclear whether he will be tried before Election Day 2024.
Multiple members of the federal judiciary in Washington have expressed their belief that Trump is responsible for the events of January 6. Contreras, in an earlier sentencing against the protester on January 6, said Trump and his allies “is responsible for what happened that day.”
Judge Amy Berman Jackson, a January 6 verdict before, said the Republican Party “actively shuns the few who think that standing up for principle is more important than force, and who step forward to educate the public and tell the truth.” The threat to democracy, Berman Jackson said, didn’t evaporate or dissipate just because the 2020 election results were confirmed.
“The lie that the election was stolen or illegitimate is still being propagated. Indeed, it is being reinforced not only by extremist social media sites, but also by mainstream news outlets.” “And even worse, it has become heresy for a member of the former president’s party to say otherwise.”
Recently, Chief Justice of the United States Royce Lamberth expressed his surprise That Republican politicians are so easily swayed by “preposterous” claims about the events of January 6th. He cited the allegations of criminals who were tried in court or held pending trial by federal judges because of their danger to the community or risk of flight.pledges“,” like Trump and his supporters, Rep. Elise Stefanik, RN.Y. have used.
“The court is used to defendants refusing to admit they did anything wrong. But in my thirty-seven years on the bench, I can’t recall a time when this kind of baseless justification of criminal activity became mainstream,” said Lambert, who was appointed by former President Ronald Reagan in 1987.
“I am horrified to see the distortions and outright lies seeping into the public consciousness,” Lambert continued. “The court fears that this kind of destructive, misguided rhetoric could pose a greater threat to our country.”