DOJ seeks nearly 16-year sentence for Jan. 6 rioter who pinned officer in door frame

[In It to Win It]

POLITICO

Prosecutors are seeking nearly 16 years in prison for Patrick McCaughey, a Jan. 6 defendant who pinned a police officer in a Capitol doorway amid some of the most chaotic moments of violence that day.

The Justice Department called for the sentence — which would be more than five years longer than the longest sentence handed down in any Jan. 6 case — to reflect what it called McCaughey’s “heinous” conduct, some of the most egregious of any Jan. 6 defendant.

“McCaughey taunted police officers at the West Front bike racks and joined the mob that threw its weight against the beleaguered line of officers guarding the Capitol,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Kimberly Paschall wrote in the 45-page sentencing memo. “McCaughey used a deadly and dangerous weapon against Officer Hodges, where he spent over two minutes using his body weight to crush the officer in the doorframe.”

McCaughey’s restraint of D.C. Police Officer Daniel Hodges in a Capitol doorway is one of the most recognizable and horrifying images of the violence that day. McCaughey’s restraint of Hodges lasted more than two minutes while other rioters disarmed the officer, removed his gas mask and ignored his screams or help. Images of McCaughey face-to-face with Hodges became a symbol of the brutality of the Jan. 6 riot. It occurred in the Capitol’s lower west terrace tunnel, where many of the most violent confrontations that day took place.

“The defendant’s actions on January 6 show an absolute disregard for the rule of law coupled with a willingness to incite and engage in violence,” Paschall wrote. “The nature and circumstances of this defendant’s crimes weigh heavily towards a significant term of incarceration.”

[Retrograde]

1. The least they could do

are they going for an attempted murder charge?

[MissMillie]

4. I'll admit I'm not learned in law

But I thought "murder" or "attempted murder" were a state charges.

IF that's the case, DOJ wouldn't handle that.

[RockRaven]

2. From the small fraction of resolved Jan 6 cases whose sentences I can recall, it seems the

judge ALWAYS under-shoots the prosecution recommended sentence. I don't remember a single one where the judge went over, and few if any (none come to mind at the moment) where they hit it exactly.

So "how much less than 16 is he gonna get?" is the question...

[Irish_Dem]

3. J6ers get off light, but if you're a pregnant woman dying of sepsis, judges will let you die.

[ShazzieB]

8. And they will pat themselves on the back

For putting the "rights" of a doomed fetus ahead of a woman's life, the bastards.

I'm saying "woman" here, because any human with a uterus IS a woman in their eyes, and therefore subhuman. These are the same morons who think people with gender dysphoria are merely "confused."

[fescuerescue]

9. I think that is pretty common in all cases where there is a trial

The prosecution overshoots. The defense undershoots.

The judge issues something in the middle.

[Irish_Dem]

10. At least the J6ers get to go to jail. A septic woman is left to die an agonizing death.

[Hortensis]

12. Well, in a good number of cases judges have questioned that prosecutors

didn't pursue more serious charges and request heavier sentences. (Reasons they didn't have been discussed, yada yada.)

But, when it's sentencing time, sentencing guidelines and individual considerations as much as are allowed come into play. So of course my first thought was also to wonder how much less. Aside from subtracting time already served in jail.

The longest sentence I've found so far is 10 years for the retired NYPD officer who attacked with a metal flagpole.

[twodogsbarking]

6. Now that you have the monkeys go after the organ grinder.

[Kid Berwyn]

7. 16 years of hard labor.

All day, every day, making little ones out of big ones.

[uponit7771]

11. K&R,

[republianmushroom]

13. agree

I like it.