• Howard Richardson pleaded responsible earlier this yr to assaulting law enforcement officials throughout the Jan. 6 assault.

• He entered restricted areas of the Capitol grounds and beat an officer with a Trump flag.

• On Friday, he was sentenced to 46 months in jail, a $2,000 nice, and three years of supervised launch.

Howard C. Richardson, a 72-year-old from Pennsylvania, was sentenced Friday to just about 4 years in jail for beating a police officer with a Trump flag throughout the Jan. 6 assault on the Capitol.

Richardson, who pleaded responsible in April to a cost of assaulting a regulation enforcement officer, made his approach to restricted areas of the Capitol grounds throughout the riot that interrupted Congress as members had been counting electoral votes associated to the 2021 presidential election, in response to a assertion launched by the Division of Justice.

The Pennsylvania native informed the FBI he was on the Capitol as a result of he was “pissed off” concerning the 2020 presidential election and offended about alleged voter fraud, NBC reported. He marched via the gang carrying a Trump flag as he handed officers making an attempt to maintain the surge at bay.

“At about 1:38 p.m., Richardson was standing a number of ft away from the police line on the West Terrace with the flagpole,” the DOJ assertion learn. “He raised it and forcefully swung it downward to strike an officer with the Metropolitan Police Division who was standing behind a metallic barricade. Richardson then struck the officer two extra occasions, utilizing sufficient power to interrupt the flagpole. Then, moments later, he joined different rioters in pushing a big metallic signal right into a line of regulation enforcement officers.”

The authorities’s sentencing memo indicated Richardson downplayed his participation within the assault, offered false details about his actions, and wrongly insisted he’d carried a “Again the Blue” flag, not a Trump flag, throughout the riot.

“Apparently unphased [sic] by the irony of utilizing a pro-police image to assault a police officer, Richardson made this assertion despite the fact that the video footage clearly exhibits his flag is a blue and crimson “Trump” flag,” the memo learn.

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On the sentencing, NBC reported, Richardson apologized for his actions, saying he “misplaced [his] mood” and that there’s “no excuse” for what he did, however that he had anticipated a celebration and “celebration” as a result of he thought that the certification of Joe Biden’s presidential win could be stopped.

“I’ve discovered my lesson, your honor,” NBC reported Richardson stated. “I used to be taking place as a patriotic citizen to have a good time. … I simply wish to return to my life.”

Richardson was ordered to serve 46 months in jail and pay $2,000 in restitution, in response to the DOJ assertion concerning the sentencing. Following his launch, Richardson will probably be positioned on three years of supervised launch.

Richardson is one in every of greater than 860 people who’ve been arrested for crimes associated to the Jan. 6 breach of the US Capitol, together with greater than 260 people charged with assaulting or impeding regulation enforcement.

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