As the prison sentences for January 6 rioters continue to be handed out following the violent attack on the U.S. Capitol building in an insurrectionist effort to overturn the 2020 election, Robert Palmer of Tampa, Florida has officially landed the lengthiest jail term yet. After being picked up in March, Palmer was identified as one of the more aggressive rioters who repeatedly assaulted officers responding to the chaos that ensued from Donald Trump’s “Stop the Steal” rally. Palmer’s actions have earned him five years in prison.
Via NBC News:
Prosecutors said he threw a wooden plank the police, then picked up a fire extinguisher and sprayed its contents at a line of officers, throwing the canister at them after it was empty.
A few minutes later, prosecutors said, he picked up the fire extinguisher and threw it at them a second time and assaulted another group of officers with a metal pole, throwing it like a spear. He stopped the attack when an officer shot him in the abdomen with a rubber bullet.
Palmer was sentenced by U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkin, who according to Rolling Stone, has felt that sentencing for the Capitol rioters has been too lenient. “There have to be consequences for participating in an attempted violent overthrow of the government beyond sitting at home,” Chutkin said back in October.
However, if Palmer had a chance at a lighter sentence it went up in smoke after he reportedly claimed on his fundraising website that his actions during the January 6 riot were out of “self-defense.” He had previously taken responsibility for his actions and pleaded guilty in court. As the judge noted in Palmer’s sentencing, this called into question the sincerity of him saying he’s “really, really ashamed of what I did.”
(Via NBC News, Rolling Stone)