A Pennsylvania man who beat a Washington, D.C., police officer with a Trump flag in the course of the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol assault was sentenced Friday to 46 months in jail, federal officers mentioned.
Howard Richardson, 72, pleaded responsible earlier this yr to assaulting, resisting or impeding officers on the Capitol, based on the Division of Justice.
Richardson waved a flag emblazoned with Trump’s title when he breached a restricted space of the Capitol, then he used the pole to strike a police officer a number of instances, officers mentioned.
“He raised it and forcefully swung it downward to strike an officer with the Metropolitan Police Division who was standing behind a steel barricade,” based on a Justice Division assertion. “Richardson then struck the officer two extra instances, utilizing sufficient pressure to interrupt the flagpole.”
After that, Richardson then pushed a “giant steel signal right into a line of regulation enforcement officers” together with different rioters, officers mentioned.
Richardson instructed the FBI he was “pissed off” concerning the 2020 presidential election and offended about alleged voter fraud, NBC reported.
Richardson was arrested in November 2021 and pleaded responsible in April.
After he serves his almost four-year jail sentence, Richardson may even be topic to 3 years of supervised launch. He should additionally pay $2,000 in restitution.
The sentence is likely one of the longest handed down out thus far within the Jan. 6 revolt.
Earlier this month, Thomas Robertson, an off-duty Virginia police officer who stormed the Capitol with a fellow officer, was sentenced to greater than seven years in jail, matching the longest jail sentence thus far amongst a whole bunch of Capitol riot circumstances.
However Justice Division officers are looking for the longest jail sentence but in opposition to a Jan. 6 rioter, 17 years, for ex-police officer and former Marine Thomas Webster, who was discovered responsible in Could of 5 felonies and a misdemeanor for his participation within the Capitol siege, together with assaulting, resisting or impeding an officer utilizing a lethal or harmful weapon, and fascinating in an act of bodily violence on Capitol grounds.
The sentence could be almost double the longest jail sentence handed down by a court docket in a Jan. 6 case so far, CBS Information reported.
Webster’s sentencing is scheduled for subsequent Friday.
Greater than 860 folks have been arrested since Jan. 6 in reference to the assault, based on the Justice Division. Greater than 260 of them have been charged with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement.