A U.S. Capitol riot defendant's lawyers blasted Donald Trump and other MAGA "grifters" in a court memo asking for a lower sentence.
Shane Jenkins, a 45-year-old Texas man charged with throwing objects at police officers and using a tomahawk to break a window of the Capitol building, has a sentencing hearing Friday, when a federal judge will determine his prison time. In March, a federal jury found him guilty of seven felony crimes and two misdemeanors, which could bring a maximum sentence of 85 years.
Ahead of the hearing, Jenkins' attorneys submitted a memo to the court that called the Capitol attack on January 6, 2021, "one of the saddest episodes in American history" and criticized Trump for continuing to promote election fraud claims that led to the riot.
"There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the 'great lie' that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent," the September 27 memo reads. "Mr. Jenkins is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong."
The memo argues against the Department of Justice's (DOJ) description of Jenkins' actions as "calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by intimidation or coercion, or to retaliate against government conduct," saying he traveled to Washington alone that day, broke the window only because other protesters urged him to do so and threw objects into the crowd "as a sign of frustration."
"Mr. Jenkins' actions on January 6th were not premeditated," the memo said.
Instead of the 210 to 262 months of prison time proposed by prosecutors, Jenkins' legal team is seeking 54 months of incarceration.
Jenkins is one of 1,146 defendants across the nation who have been charged in connection with January 6, according to a DOJ press release from last month. He is also among the nearly 400 defendants who were charged with assaulting, resisting or impeding officers or employees.
"Approximately 378 [federal defendants] have been sentenced to periods of incarceration," the department said on September 6.
Jenkins will appear before U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta on Friday. He has presided over several cases related to the Capitol assault, including the prosecution of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy in May, the longest sentence imposed to date in connection with the riot.
Mehta is also overseeing civil lawsuits filed by members of Congress and two Capitol police officers against Trump and several of his associates for injuries received on January 6.
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Katherine Fung is a Newsweek reporter based in New York City. Her focus is reporting on U.S. and world politics. ... Read more
