Photo: U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia
A Florida man (above with MAGA hat) who confessed to throwing a wood plank and spraying and hurling a fire extinguisher at police officers during the U.S. Capitol riot Jan. 6 was sentenced to a little over 5 years in federal prison Friday, the longest yet for anyone sentenced for the events of that day.
In October, Robert Scott Palmer pleaded guilty to one count of assaulting, resisting or impeding police officers using a dangerous weapon. In addition to 63 months in prison, he was ordered to pay $2,000 in restitution and also faces 36 months of supervised release after his prison sentence.
United States District Court Judge Tanya Chutkan said she wasn’t punishing Palmer for his political beliefs, but rather the actions he decided to take following the 2020 presidential election. She said that while others also may have disliked the results, they did not all storm the U.S. Capitol.
“The actions you engaged in cannot happen again,” Chutkan told Palmer at his sentencing hearing Friday.
Before his hearing, Palmer drafted a letter to Chutkan, apologizing for his role in the Jan. 6 riot, which sought to subvert the 2020 presidential election results. Read more.
