A judge sentenced an incarcerated supporter of former President Donald Trump to time served under a plea deal in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack on Wednesday, telling the Michigan man that he had \u201cplaced his trust in someone who repaid that trust by lying to him.\u201d<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Amy Berman Jackson told Capitol attack defendant Karl Dresch that he was \u201cnot a political prisoner\u201d and was in jail because of his actions on Jan. 6. Under a plea deal, Dresch pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count and was sentenced to time served. Dresch faced several counts \u2015 including a felony charge of obstruction of an official proceeding \u2015 that will be dropped as part of the plea deal. He\u2019ll be released from jail Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Dresch, who called Jan. 6 the \u201cbest day ever,\u201d made his first appearance in federal court on Jan. 20, the day of President Joe Biden\u2019s inauguration. He\u2019s already served more time behind bars than the six-month maximum sentence he could face under a misdemeanor offense.<\/p>\n
Jackson noted that Dresch\u2019s belief in a stolen election was \u201cmisguided\u201d and that courts have universally rejected the bizarre conspiracy theories that Trump and his allies attempted to present to soothe the former president\u2019s feelings about his 2020 loss.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe defendant did not spend six months in jail because of his political views. He was not a political prisoner. He was not prosecuted for exercising his First Amendment rights,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cHe just pled guilty to a federal offense, he just admitted that he broke the law.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dresch was arrested because he was an \u201centhusiastic participant in an effort to subvert and undo the electoral process\u201d who came to D.C. and encouraged others to do the same, Jackson said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re not here today because he supported the former president,\u201d Jackson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the end of the day, the fact is that the defendant came to the Capitol because he placed his trust in someone who repaid that trust by lying to him,\u201d Jackson said.<\/p>\n
The FBI has made more than 550 arrests in connection with the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, and hundreds more arrests are in the works. Last month, the first Capitol defendant to plead guilty to a felony was sentenced to eight months behind bars. Two more Capitol defendants have sentences scheduled for Wednesday, and another Capitol defendant plans to enter a guilty plea this afternoon.<\/p>\n
Dresch was one of many Jan. 6 defendants who pushed back on their fellow Trump supporters\u2019 conspiracy theories that suggested that left-wing protesters were actually responsible for the violence and destruction at the Capitol. He referred to Jan. 6 as \u201c1776,\u201d called himself and other Trump supporters patriots, and called his political opponents who did not believe in internet conspiracies about a stolen election \u201ctraitors.\u201d He wrote in one post that Trump supporters \u201chad the cops booking it\u201d on Jan. 6, and continued to support the mob\u2019s actions after the attack.<\/p>\n
\u201cMike Pence gave our country to the communist hordes, traitor scum like the rest of them, we have your back give the word and we will be back even stronger,\u201d Dresch wrote.<\/p>\n
Jackson called Dresch \u201ca big talker\u201d but said that his actions \u201cdid not match his rhetoric.\u201d She also said Dresch had misguided views about what patriotism was all about, and that he didn\u2019t get to cancel out other Americans\u2019 votes and call for war because he didn\u2019t like the outcome of the election.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s not patriotism. Patriotism is loyalty to country, loyalty to the constitution, not loyalty to a single head of state,\u201d Jackson said. \u201cThat\u2019s the tyranny we rejected on July 4, 1776. This event did not honor our nation\u2019s founders. It didn\u2019t honor anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n