So far more than 650 people have been charged with crimes related to the January 6 insurrection. About 100 have pleaded guilty and at least 17 have been sentenced. One district judge in DC has been consistently sentencing Capitol rioters to more jail time than prosecutors have recommended.
In the past week, U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan has imposed sentences ranging from 14 to 45 days on four people who pleaded guilty to unlawful parading and picketing inside the Capitol building on Jan. 6 — a misdemeanor offense.
Note that these are people who pleaded guilty to misdemeanors and cooperated with prosecutors. In each case, prosecutors had recommended lighter sentences or probation.
"There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home," Chutkan said at one of the hearings.
While some may consider even those sentences as too light, remember that more than 500 perps remain to be tried, and for much more serious offenses, including felonies. Prosecutors have said they will seek much harsher penalties for felony convictions.
It’s happening, people.
Thursday, Oct 14, 2021 · 9:08:34 PM +00:00
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liberaldad2
I would like to thank all the thoughtful commenters, but also to add an observation, based on the virulence and vituperation from some of the commenters.
Many folks here at DK seem to want to lump all the participants in the Jan 6 insurrection into a single category of treasonous insurrectionist and hang them all. Some appear to believe that the time required to bring insurrectionists to justice is evidence of corruption or incompetence by the DOJ.
In fact, observers at the event noted distinct differences among the participants (I wish I could remember where I saw it). The most egregious category was the violent organized houligans who committed clear acts of violence and aggression against the police and the grounds. But not all participants fell into that category. There were also facilitators who were observed to direct and coordinate the events, but made a point of staying away from the violence. Then there were the demented Q-anon loonies who were there for a party. And finally there were the conservative Republicans who thought they were tourists who were invited there for a Trump rally. Each group behaved differently and committed different crimes, and are presumably being treated differently by the FBI and the prosecutors.