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WASHINGTON — A Donald Trump fanatic who believed the previous president’s lies in regards to the 2020 election was sentenced on Wednesday to greater than three years in federal jail for assaulting regulation enforcement officers with a hockey stick throughout the brutal battle on the decrease west tunnel of the U.S. Capitol throughout the Jan. 6 assault.
Michael Joseph Foy was arrested in January 2021 and was initially held in pretrial detention. He was discovered responsible of felony expenses in June. Federal prosecutors sought greater than eight years in federal jail for Foy, saying he assaulted officers with a hockey stick and a sharpened metallic pole after touring to Washington with a “TRUMP 2020” flag.
However U.S. District Court docket Decide Tanya Chutkan — who’s overseeing Trump’s delayed federal trial on expenses he tried to overturn his 2020 election loss by conspiring to impede Congress and disenfranchise American voters — stated Wednesday that the Justice Division’s request was “unreasonable” and did not consider Foy’s prior navy service and different components in his life within the lead-up to Jan. 6. Chutkan in the end landed on a sentence of 40 months, which means that Foy will find yourself serving an extra two years and some months in federal jail.
Foy, in accordance with the FBI, had beforehand proven as much as the TCF Middle in Detroit after the 2020 election, the place Trump supporters spun up on lies in regards to the elections course of harassed ballot staff and banged on home windows to attempt to cease absentee ballots from being counted. In courtroom on Wednesday, his lawyer stated that Foy’s mom and stepfather had been “ardent Trump supporters” who additionally purchased into Trump’s lies in regards to the election, which made him extra prone to the misinformation that Trump and his allies had been spreading.
Elizabeth Mullin, one of many federal public defenders representing Foy, argued that giving him a prolonged sentence would not cease future potential rioters from responding to false claims and heated rhetoric from political candidates going ahead. A sentence for a random Jan. 6 rioter, she argued, wouldn’t have that a lot of a deterrent impact when outstanding figures — together with the presumptive Republican nominee for president — proceed to unfold lies in regards to the 2020 election. Chutkan averted getting roped right into a dialogue of the previous president’s culpability for the Capitol assault forward of the trial she’ll oversee.
“I’m not moving into that,” Chutkan stated with a smile, prompting laughter within the courtroom.
“Additionally not moving into that,” she added, when the protection lawyer mentioned members of Congress who acted upon Trump’s election lies and proceed to advertise them.
Chutkan did take umbrage on the suggestion that Foy had solely deliberate to make use of the hockey stick he introduced from Michigan as a flagpole.
“This is not a hockey city,” Chutkan stated, quipping that followers of the Washington Capitals “could disagree.” Foy’s lawyer conceded that Foy in the end used the hockey stick as a weapon on the Capitol.
In a video performed throughout his sentencing, Foy described himself as a “30-year-old loser” who was dwelling at his mother’s home within the lead-up to the assault, which is when Foy fell for what his lawyer described as “the dire propaganda” of the previous president. Foy thanked Chutkan for serving to him get “much-needed psychological well being assist” after he was first arrested.
“Not a day goes by the place I did not say to myself ‘I am not going to allow you to down,'” Foy informed Chutkan throughout the listening to.
Chutkan stated that Foy had each proper to peacefully protest and that he had the precise even now to imagine no matter lies in regards to the 2020 election that he chooses. However she advised she hoped Foy had now come to comprehend that he had “embraced” false beliefs “based mostly on misinformation.” Foy was not being punished for his false beliefs, she reiterated. “I’m punishing you for what you probably did,” she informed him.
Chutkan stated what occurred on Jan. 6 was “terrifying,” that she was “horrified each single time” she watched movies from that day. Deterrence “is a vital issue” to forestall future rioters from performing on any future lies from political candidates, she stated.
“I’ve seen so many individuals earlier than me who by no means lifted a hand in violence earlier than Jan. 6,” Chutkan stated. “There need to be vital penalties.”
This text was initially printed on NBCNews.com
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