6 cases have featured $500 in restitution, while most felony deals have required $2,000. The judge also probed the $500 in restitution that Griffith agreed to pay as part of his deal misdemeanor deals in Jan. Howell pushed back, questioning whether the government’s decision to offer people who joined the mob “basically the most minimal of federal criminal charges” would achieve that goal. Prosecutors also cited BuzzFeed News’ reporting on a video game that Griffith had continued to promote on Facebook and TikTok in the weeks leading up to his plea hearing in July that featured a Donald Trump character shooting and threatening monsters, members of “antifa,” “Dem zombies,” and other assorted enemies.Ī period of incarceration would deter Griffith - and others - from engaging in similar criminal activity going forward, prosecutors argued. In Griffith’s case, the government highlighted evidence that he was excited to participate in the riots, defended what happened, and expressed regret that the mob had failed to stop Congress from certifying the results of the election. Assistant US Attorney Jamie Carter said that the government was analyzing a variety of factors in deciding what sentence to push for, including whether there was evidence that a defendant understood and supported the violence at the Capitol and how much remorse they expressed afterward. Howell wasn’t satisfied with the government’s explanations for why its sentencing recommendations in these cases had ranged from probation to incarceration. The parading charge is the most common count that Capitol rioters are pleading guilty to so far. She explained at the time: “There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government, beyond sitting at home.” The government had asked for home confinement for Matthew Mazzocco of Texas, who pleaded guilty to the parading offense, but US District Judge Tanya Chutkan sentenced him to 45 days behind bars. She described the government’s brief as “almost schizophrenic.”Ī few judges have imposed sentences that were harsher than what the government asked for, including in cases where defendants pleaded guilty to the same crime as Griffith: parading, demonstrating, or picketing in the Capitol, a class B misdemeanor with a maximum sentence of six months in prison. She questioned prosecutors using “scorching” rhetoric to describe the severity of the attack on the Capitol while also using words like “trespass” to describe what some defendants, including Griffith, did that day. 6 cases, especially for defendants charged solely with misdemeanor crimes. Howell repeatedly expressed puzzlement at how the Justice Department was managing the Jan. But in sentencing Jack Griffith of Tennessee to three years of probation instead of the three months behind bars that the government wanted, she explained that the court had an obligation to avoid “unwarranted” differences in sentencing - effectively finding that the government had undercut its own case.
She previously questioned whether the Justice Department was letting defendants off too lightly in plea deals. US District Chief Judge Beryl Howell has been one of the most outspoken members of the bench in denouncing the Capitol riots. 6 prosecutions, rejecting a recommendation of prison time for one rioter because it conflicted with the government’s position in other similar cases. WASHINGTON - A federal judge on Thursday slammed the Justice Department’s “muddled” approach to the Jan.