A retired New York City police officer has been jailed for assaulting one of the officers who tried to stop the January 6 uprising at the United States Capitol.
Thomas Webster was sentenced to ten years, the longest sentence ever handed down in a riot-related case.
Webster, 56, was found guilty in May after a jury did not believe he was acting in self-defense when he swung a flag pole at a police officer, charged through a barricade and tackled the man to the ground during the Washington D.C. riot.
On the morning of the January 2021 riots, thousands of supporters of donald trump — inspired by an inflammatory speech he had just given near the White House in which he reiterated that he had been denied a second term due to voter fraud — marched to the Capitol building that houses the seat of the US government.
The Capitol was in session at the time, overseeing Congressional certification of Joe Bidenpresidential election victory.
A large group broke through barriers at the pedestrian entrances to the building grounds. Several also entered the Capitol building after a mob smashed windows and forced open doors.
More than 100 police officers were injured in the chaos.
Webster, a 20-year veteran of the NYPD, was the first Capitol riot defendant to stand trial for assault.
CBS News reported that Judge Amit Mehta told Webster during sentencing, “I, too, wish you hadn’t come to Washington DC. I, too, wish you had stayed at home in New York… that you didn’t come out to the Capitol that day, because we’d all be much better off.
“Not just you…your family…the country.”
Separately, a lawyer for the far-right extremist group Oath Keepers has been charged with conspiracy in connection with the Capitol attack.
Pro-Trump protesters on the National Mall in DC
Seditious plot
The US Department of Justice said Thursday that Kellye SoRelle – general counsel for the anti-government group – was arrested in Texas on charges of conspiring to obstruct official process.
SoRelle is a close associate of Stewart Rhodes, the leader of the Oath Keepers who will stand trial later this month alongside other extremists for seditious conspiracy.
SoRelle has previously said she had no knowledge of or involvement in the Capitol breach.
