Man who instructed jurors he had ‘fun’ on the Capitol riot is sentenced to six years in jail

WASHINGTON — A Virginia man who instructed his spouse – and a federal jury – that he had “fun” on the U.S. Capitol riot was sentenced on Friday to 6 years in jail for attacking police as he stormed the constructing.

Markus Maly‘s jail sentence is considerably decrease than the punishment that prosecutors searched for his function within the Jan. 6, 2021, rebellion. The Justice Department had beneficial a jail sentence of 15 years and eight months for Maly, a flooring installer.

A prosecutor described Maly, 49, as a “lifelong criminal” with 33 prior convictions on his document, together with two for battery of a regulation enforcement officer. But the decide who sentenced Maly famous that the majority of his crimes date again to his 20s.

Maly instructed U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta that he regrets touring to Washington and following the mob of then-President Donald Trump‘s supporters to the Capitol. But he insisted that he merely “occupied space” within the crowd and denied attacking and pepper-spraying police.

“I went to a rally. That’s what I did,” he instructed the decide.

The decide stated jurors had ample proof to convict Maly of assaulting police.

“It’s not that you were there and ‘occupying space.’ It’s that you did these things and kept doing them that day,” the decide instructed him.

Prosecutors say Maly is considered one of many Capitol rioters who’ve tried to revenue from their notoriety, portraying themselves as patriots, martyrs or political prisoners as they solicit donations from supporters. While prosecutors acknowledge that defendants have a proper to lift cash for authorized defenses, they’re more and more asking judges to impose fines on prime of jail phrases to claw again donations used for private bills.

Maly has raised greater than $16,500 by a GiveSendGo donation web page, referring to himself as a “January 6 P.O.W.” Prosecutors requested the decide to effective him an quantity commensurate together with his fundraising haul, noting that he had a public defender and didn’t owe any authorized charges.

The decide declined to impose a effective. He stated Maly‘s fundraising actions could have been “unseemly,” however he questioned whether or not there was a authorized foundation for clawing again the cash.

Maly testified at his trial that taking part within the Capitol riot was “fun” for him. He additionally described the occasions of Jan. 6 as “fun” and “awesome” in messages despatched to his spouse and others.

“Maly admitted to being proud of what he had done at the Capitol and that he had bragged about it,” prosecutor Stephen Rancourt wrote in a court docket submitting. “Despite seeing police officers assaulted, injured, and distressed on January 6, and knowing that it was a bad day for members of Congress and the police officers who had to live through the riot, Maly reiterated that his experience that day was ‘fun.’”

The decide at Maly’s trial beforehand handed down the longest sentence for a Capitol riot case: 18 years for Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes, who was convicted of orchestrating a violent plot to maintain Trump, a Republican, within the White House after he misplaced the 2020 presidential election to Joe Biden, a Democrat.

Maly has been jailed since a jury convicted him in December of all eight prices towards him, together with felony counts of civil dysfunction and assaulting, resisting or impeding police utilizing a harmful weapon.

On the morning of Jan. 6, Maly took a bus from his house in Fincastle, Virginia, to Washington to attend Trump‘s “Stop the Steal” rally. He later joined the mob that attacked police on the Capitol’s Lower West Terrace, some of the violent clashes of the day.

Maly sprayed a chemical, probably pepper spray, at Metropolitan Police Department Officer Christopher Boyle as he and different officers retreated right into a tunnel and guarded an entrance. Maly handed a twig cannister from one rioter to a different, joined a coordinated “heave ho” push towards police and left the tunnel with a stolen riot defend as a “trophy,” Rancourt stated.

Maly was charged and tried with co-defendants Peter Schwartz and Jeffrey Scott Brown. Schwartz handed the spray canister to Maly, who handed it to Brown. The jurors who convicted Maly additionally discovered Schwartz and Brown responsible of associated prices.

The decide sentenced Schwartz final month to 14 years and two months in jail, the longest for a Jan. 6 case earlier than Rhodes, and sentenced Brown in April to 4 years and 6 months in jail.

Prosecutors say Maly lied on the witness stand when he testified that he solely confirmed a cannister to Boyle however didn’t spray the officer.

“Maly claimed that the stream of liquid coming out of the canister was actually a piece of fringe on his hat. However, his hat didn’t have a fringe,” Rancourt wrote.

Defense lawyer Benjamin Schiffelbein stated Maly believed that the 2020 presidential election was stolen from Trump.

“He fervently believed that he was protesting in the name of liberty and freedom. His motives, however (factually) wrong they may have been, were based in values this country celebrates,” Schiffelbein wrote. “What is more American than fervently defending democracy – even from one’s own government – and perhaps especially then?”

More than 100 law enforcement officials had been injured through the riot. More than 1,000 folks have been charged with federal crimes associated to Jan. 6. Over 500 of them have been sentenced, with greater than half getting phrases of imprisonment, in keeping with an Associated Press overview of court docket data.

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