#US#Judge Royce C. #Lamberth is the latest in broad, public push by #FederalJudges against #Jan6#revisionism [Another] #Republican-appointed judge said he plans to send a written response to supporters of a Jan 6 rioter who claimed that he did nothing wrong, warning the man’s friends & family members that justifying #PoliticalViolence risks further #violence in a “vicious cycle” that “rots republics.”
In an unusual step, #US District #Judge Royce C. #Lamberth filed on the #public#docket the statement he prepared to sentence #TaylorJamesJohnatakis to >7 yrs in #prison. Even more atypically, he said he would order his clerk to mail copies to 20 people who wrote letters supporting the defendant — the first time he had done so in his 37-yr career — to explain his reasoning.
“January 6 must not become a precedent for further #violence against #political opponents or governmental institutions,” Judge #Lamberth wrote. “This is not normal. This cannot become normal. We as a #community, we as a #society, we as a country cannot condone the #normalization of the January 6 Capitol riot.”
Judge #Lamberth’s move is the latest in a wider public push by #FederalJudges in Washington to counter what polling shows is an uptick in public #acceptance of the #violent breach of the #US Capitol on #Jan6, 2021, fueled by Trump’s escalating rhetoric casting defendants as “political prisoners” & “hostages” who did nothing wrong. #Trump has pledged to pardon #J6#insurrection defendants, including those who assaulted police.