Post by addisona on Feb 11, 2022 15:15:39 GMT
Judge rebukes RNC's 'legitimate political discourse' language at Jan. 6 sentencing
A federal judge on Thursday directly rebuked the Republican National Committee's resolution that declared the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol "legitimate political discourse" as she sentenced a man convicted of punching two officers during the assault to six months in prison.
"It is not 'legitimate political discourse,' and it is not justified to descend on the nation's Capitol at the direction of a disappointed candidate and disrupt the electoral process," said D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson before she sentenced Mark Leffingwell, a disabled former Marine from Washington state. "Cancelling out the votes of other people with a show force is the opposite of what America stands for."
On top of his jail time, Leffingwell, 52, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in the Army National Guard in Iraq, also faces two years probation, $2,000 in restitution charges and 200 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers in October.
Prosecutors said Leffingwell flew from his Seattle home to Philadelphia and drove with a friend to attend then-President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse. He joined the assault on the Capitol about an hour after it had started, they said, and investigators cited videos showing him standing at the front of a large crowd on the Senate West Wing steps, just inside the building, where police officers formed a protective line in front of him.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-rebukes-rncs-legitimate-political-discourse-language-jan/story?id=82809655
A federal judge on Thursday directly rebuked the Republican National Committee's resolution that declared the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol "legitimate political discourse" as she sentenced a man convicted of punching two officers during the assault to six months in prison.
"It is not 'legitimate political discourse,' and it is not justified to descend on the nation's Capitol at the direction of a disappointed candidate and disrupt the electoral process," said D.C. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson before she sentenced Mark Leffingwell, a disabled former Marine from Washington state. "Cancelling out the votes of other people with a show force is the opposite of what America stands for."
On top of his jail time, Leffingwell, 52, who suffered a traumatic brain injury while serving in the Army National Guard in Iraq, also faces two years probation, $2,000 in restitution charges and 200 hours of community service. He pleaded guilty to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers in October.
Prosecutors said Leffingwell flew from his Seattle home to Philadelphia and drove with a friend to attend then-President Donald Trump's Jan. 6 rally on the Ellipse. He joined the assault on the Capitol about an hour after it had started, they said, and investigators cited videos showing him standing at the front of a large crowd on the Senate West Wing steps, just inside the building, where police officers formed a protective line in front of him.
abcnews.go.com/Politics/judge-rebukes-rncs-legitimate-political-discourse-language-jan/story?id=82809655