Toughest sentence yet for rioter; Stone invokes 5th

WASHINGTON — A Capitol rioter who attacked police officers working to keep back the angry mob on Jan. 6 was sentenced Friday to more than five years behind bars, the most so far for anyone sentenced in the insurrection.

Robert Palmer, 54, of Largo, Fla., wept as he told U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan that he recently watched a video of his actions that day and could not believe what he was seeing.

“Your honor. I’m really really ashamed of what I did,” he said, weeping.

Also Friday, longtime Trump confidant Roger Stone said he asserted his Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination in an interview with the House panel investigating the insurrection.

Palmer was one of a few rioters sentenced on Friday in District of Columbia court for their actions on Jan. 6 when the angry mob descended after a rally by then-President Donald Trump to disrupt the certification of Joe Biden’s victory. Scores of police were beaten and blooded, five people died and there was about $1.5 million in damage done to the U.S. Capitol. Palmer is the 65th defendant to be sentenced overall. More than 700 people have been charged.

A college student who posted online that “Infamy is just as good as fame” after she climbed through a broken window at the Capitol was sentenced to a month in jail for her actions. Gracyn Courtright, 23, of Hurricane, W.V., didn’t injure anyone, though, and her sentence reflected that.

But Palmer made his way to the front line during the chaos and started to attack, throwing a wooden plank, spraying a fire extinguisher, then hurling it when it was done. He rooted around for other objects, prosecutors said. He was briefly pepper-sprayed by police before he attacked officers again with a pole. He pleaded guilty to attacking officers.

Before Palmer’s sentencing, the longest prison term handed down for a Capitol rioter was 41 months. That was the sentence received by both Jacob Chansley, the Arizona man who wore a horned fur hat, bare chest and face paint inside the Capitol; and New Jersey gym owner Scott Fairlamb, the first person to be sentenced for assaulting a law enforcement officer.

“It has to be made clear … trying to stop the peaceful transition of power and assaulting law enforcement officers is going to be met with certain punishment,” the judge said.

Stone — who was convicted in 2019 of lying to Congress, but subsequently pardoned by Trump — told reporters Friday that “I did my civic duty and I responded as required by law” but that he invoked his Fifth Amendment rights to every question.

The committee subpoenaed Stone last month, noting that he spoke at rallies on the day before the insurrection and used members of a far-right extremist group, the Oath Keepers, as personal security guards while in Washington. Several members of that militia group broke into the Capitol.