- A Trump supporter got sentenced to more than 5 years in prison Friday for his role in the January 6 riot.
- Robert Palmer pleaded guilty in October to throwing a fire extinguisher at police guarding the Capitol
- Palmer said he was "ashamed" of his conduct and recounted being struck by an MSNBC segment on his case.
An avid supporter of former President Donald Trump who threw a fire extinguisher at police during the January 6 attack on the Capitol was sentenced Friday to more than 5 years in prison, the longest term ordered to date in a prosecution arising out of the deadly rampage.
Robert Scott Palmer, who wore a American flag sweatshirt emblazoned with Trump's name during the Capitol siege, pleaded guilty in October to assaulting police on January 6.
He was part of the pro-Trump mob that overwhelmed police protecting the Capitol during the certification of Joe Biden's White House victory and faced federal charges for spraying law enforcement officers with the contents of the fire extinguisher. Once it was empty, he hurled the extinguisher itself at police officers, prosecutors said.
US District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan delivered Palmer's 63-month sentence, which is exactly what federal prosecutors had recommended for the Florida businessman who said he'd been swept up in the furor of the pro-Trump mob.
In a court filing recommending that sentence, prosecutors noted that while some Capitol rioters donned tactical gear and used dangerous weapons during the melee, Palmer was among those who transformed ordinary objects — such as flag poles, sticks, and barricades — into dangerous weapons.
On Friday, Chutkan said many others shared Palmer's objection to the 2020 election results and "perhaps thought the election was stolen in some way."
But, she added, "they stayed home. You decided on your own free will to leave Florida and come to Washington and go to the rally. That's your right. You're not being sentenced for your political views. When you left that rally and went to the Capitol and saw what was going on and engaged in combat with a law enforcement officer — that's what you're being punished for."
The Capitol attack was not a protest but rather "a violent attempt to stop the peaceful transfer of power," said Chutkan, an appointee of President Barack Obama, noting the rioters caused destruction, death and injuries both seen an unseen.
"Many of the people who were inside the Capitol will carry that for a long time," Chutkan said.
Palmer has been in custody since his October guilty plea. In brief remarks to Chutkan, Palmer appeared to grow emotional as he recounted watching an MSNBC segment on his case while in jail and being struck by the violence of January 6. He described law enforcement as "so brave" and said he was "so ashamed I was a part of that — very, very ashamed."
Ahead of Palmer's sentencing, his defense lawyer argued that a sentence of between 18 months and two years would be "sufficient, but not greater than necessary," and that he recognized his actions on January 6 were "inexcusable."
Prosecutors cast doubt on Palmer's level of remorse. After admitting guilt, they said, Palmer posted online that his actions were purely defensive and that he had been reacting to being tear-gassed. Still, prosecutors said Palmer had pleaded guilty relatively early.
Chutkan on Friday said the post showed that Palmer "still denied culpability" after pleading guilty.
Palmer's sentence stands out as longest among Capitol rioters, with some of the other more prominent ones receiving prison sentences of more than three years.
Jacob Chansley, a Capitol rioter known as the QAnon Shaman, got sentenced to 41 months in prison after pleading guilty to storming the Capitol. Chansley has appealed his sentence to the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit.
Another rioter, Scott Fairlamb, received the same sentence after pleading guilty to assaulting police on January 6.
After participating in the Capitol riot, Palmer told HuffPost that the Biden administration was seeking to "villify the patriots" who joined in the January 6 violence. Chutkan on Friday noted the work of outnumbered police officers that day and urged Palmer to look behind him in the courtroom to marshals who ran over to the Capitol to help on January 6.
"They were the patriots that day, Mr. Palmer," Chutkan said.