[On the last day of federal court before Donald Trump takes office, the judge who presided over the president-elect’s now-dismissed criminal January 6, 2021, case told a defendant who admitted to disorderly conduct that he may be the last US Capitol rioter she’ll sentence.
If Trump grants blanket pardons, as expected at least for nonviolent offenders charged in the 2021 Capitol siege, the judiciary’s role in overseeing the cases would end immediately. If Trump were to also pardon violent offenders and seditious conspirators, those who are serving prison time could be released from federal custody.
“This may be, depending upon what happens outside these walls, the last one of these,” Judge Tanya Chutkan said to the defendant, Brian Leo Kelly, who also pleaded guilty to a second misdemeanor charge, trespassing inside the Capitol.
“I’m fully aware you may never serve a sentence in this case,” Chutkan added.
Others being sentenced yesterday included Kellye SoRelle, who was convicted of obstructing justice because she encouraged the Oath Keepers to delete their January 6 plans over text; a pair of brothers who violently assaulted police at the Capitol; a man who broke down one of the original, 171-year-old wooden doors in the US Senate; and two men who separately sprayed police guarding the Capitol complex with chemical irritants.
The busy scene at the Washington, DC, federal courthouse on Friday echoed the lockdown the building faced in the aftermath of January 6. The courthouse was surrounded by tall, black metal fencing. A surveillance chopper hovered over the building, loudly, and streets around the courthouse were already closed down by law enforcement for security purposes.
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