MAN SENTENCED TO 41 MONTHS FOR ASSAULTING OFFICER IN CAPITOL RIOT

A former New Jersey gym owner who was the first person to plead guilty to assaulting a police officer during the attack on the Capitol in January was sentenced Wednesday to 41 months in prison, the most severe punishment given so far to any of the more than 650 people charged in the riot.

The gym owner, Scott Fairlamb, admitted in August to breaking into the Capitol and, after he left, approaching a group of officers outside as they were making their way through a large and angry group of pro-trump protesters.

Fairlamb could be heard on video shouting at the officers: “Are you an American? Act like it!” Then, unprompted, Fairlamb shoved one of them and punched him in the face.

At a hearing in U.S. District Court in Washington, Fairlamb apologized in halting tones to his family, saying he had tarnished the name that “they had built up” with his “completely reckless” actions. His father once worked for the New Jersey State Police, and his brother is a Secret Service agent who was formerly assigned to Michelle Obama.

But Judge Royce C. Lamberth called Fairlamb’s assault on the officer “an affront to society and the law,” adding that he needed to serve time in prison even though he had shown remorse for the attack.

Fairlamb’s sentence was slightly lower than the 44 months in prison that prosecutors had requested and could set a benchmark for dozens of other defendants charged with assaulting police officers Jan. 6. Lamberth said Fairlamb would get credit for the 10 months he had spent in custody after being denied bail.

Authorities have said that, according to a review of cameras worn by police, there were more than 1,000 attacks on federal officers that day. More than 200 people have been charged with assaulting, resisting or interfering with officers, but aside from Fairlamb, only five have pleaded guilty.

At the hearing, prosecutors read a statement from Fairlamb’s victim, who has been identified as Officer Z.B. In the statement, the officer said he still recalled the “dread and fear” of being attacked, alone, outside the Capitol Jan. 6, calling it “the scariest day” of his career.