Days before the election, DOJ continues to prosecute new Jan. 6 cases

Source: NBC News

Nov. 3, 2024, 8:00 AM EST


WASHINGTON — Standing inside a sparsely filled federal courtroom in Washington on Friday afternoon, another Donald Trump supporter who committed crimes on Jan. 6, 2021, because he believed the then-president’s election lies was sentenced to prison for participating in what his sentencing judge described as “a direct attack on the nation’s democracy.”

Wearing a blue suit as he shook, sniffled and fought back tears, 38-year-old Troy Weeks talked extensively about his rough childhood, bragged that he refused to take part in a walkout when he was in high school, quoted scripture and apologized to one of the few people in the courtroom gallery: former Capitol Police Sgt. Aquilino Gonell, a military veteran who was repeatedly assaulted while protecting the Capitol nearly four years ago.

“I feel ashamed,” said Weeks, who pleaded guilty in May to two felonies, including assaulting, resisting or impeding law enforcement officers, as well as several misdemeanors. The judge sentenced him to 21 months in federal prison.

In their sentencing memo, prosecutors sought more than two years in prison for Weeks, writing that he “encouraged other rioters to push against the police, pushed up against the police himself, and tried to grab a can of OC spray from a Metropolitan Police Department Officer.”

Read more: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/justice-department/new-jan-6-arrests-sentences-ahead-2024-election-rcna178505