The Justice Department (DOJ) urged a federal court Monday to sentence a convicted Jan. 6 rioter to more than 24 years in prison, which would be by far the longest sentence given to any such defendant in the past two years, according to CBS News.
Peter Schwartz, already a felon with dozens of convictions for crimes including assault and terroristic threatening of police officers, went to the U.S. Capitol with his then-wife Shelly Stallings and threw the “first” chair at a group of law enforcement personnel before using stolen pepper spray to repeatedly attack officers, according to U.S. Attorney Matthew Graves’ sentencing memorandum. A jury found Schwartz guilty in December of all 11 counts against him in the case, and Graves asked Monday for him to receive 294 months in prison and three years of supervised release, in addition to paying a $71,541 fine.
Graves said the sentencing recommendation accounts for Schwartz’ violent criminal history and alleged “efforts to profit from his crime,” reporting that Schwartz has raised $71,541 through an online campaign entitled “Patriot Pete Political Prisoner in DC.”
“After leaving Capitol grounds, Schwartz bragged to multiple people about his participation in the violence that day,” Graves said. “Even now, more than two years later, he has demonstrated zero remorse for his conduct, giving repeated interviews from the D.C. Jail claiming that he is a completely innocent victim of a biased prosecution and has done nothing wrong.”
Former NYPD officer Thomas Webster received a 10-year prison sentence in September after he was convicted of assaulting police and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, CBS News reported. Stallings has been sentenced to two years in prison after pleading guilty for her illegal conduct on Jan. 6.
Schwartz’s attorney Dennis Boyle said in the defense’s Monday sentencing memorandum that his client’s conduct was “indeed serious,” but claimed he was leading a life “characterized by hard work and a focus on his religious and moral beliefs” prior to Jan. 6. Boyle argued that Schwartz had been “motivated by a misunderstanding as to the facts surrounding the 2020 election,” pointing out that thousands of protestors walked into the Capitol that day.
“Indeed, Mr. Schwartz knew next to nothing about the 2020 election and listened to sources of information that were clearly false,” Boyle said. “There remain many grifters out there who remain free to continue propagating the ‘great lie’ that Trump won the election, Donald Trump being among the most prominent. Mr. Schwartz is not one of these individuals; he knows he was wrong.”
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